


Still Jack and Daniel Series 4 - The Rainbow Series Part IV - Teenage Rainbow Summer (Thirteen)

by Annejackdanny



Series: Still Jack and Daniel Series 4 - The Rianbow Series [4]
Category: Little Daniel - Fandom, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, M/M, Slash, Teenage Rebellion, kid (teen) fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-18 08:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 51,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20636387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annejackdanny/pseuds/Annejackdanny
Summary: Daniel has reached another milestone – he’s a teenager now. He has stepped out of his comfort zone and is exploring the world of being a teen outside the mountain with friends ‘his age’ and he has found a new obsession.





	1. June

**Author's Note:**

> As always I want to thank my lovely, amazing beta, Char, for her loyalty and cheerleading. And I want to thank my muse for showing up again after a prettty long dry spell :D Please stick around, I need you - thanks :D
> 
> This story is number 4 in the Rainbow Series. There are two more I have already written. After that it's time to take the guys on their final journey before LD enters adulthood again.
> 
> Thanks to my readers for sticking with me even though it seems to take so much longer today for me to write and finish something. But I'm still here, so no worries.
> 
> Hugs,  
Anne

**The Rainbow Series IV**

**Teenage Rainbow Summer**

  


**June**

**I**

LD straightened his shoulders, pushed his key into the lock and slowly opened the front door. Maybe if he was really really quiet… maybe he could get away with saying he’d been home for a while and they just hadn’t noticed…

Or maybe, probably, most likely not.

Flyboy dashed across the hallway and greeted him with his usual happy enthusiasm – like he hadn’t seen him in three days or something. “Shush,” Daniel muttered, but of course it was too late.

Jack appeared in the doorway to the dining room, the picture of outer nonchalance. “Daniel! How nice of you to join us. Dinner is ready. Since it was your turn to cook but you didn’t show up I have taken the liberty to fix us some delicious pearly barley dish.”

Daniel swallowed a groan. “Really?” He hated barley in any form. “You did that on purpose.”

“Oh yeah, it’s pearly barley torture time for you.”

“I’m sorry I’m late.” He toed off his sneakers as carefully as possible.

“_Again_,” Jack added sharply, dropping the act.

“Again, yes. Thanks for texting me to remind me of the time.”

“And _yet_, it still took you almost an hour to get home.”

“I said I’m sorry.” He walked past Jack into the kitchen with gritted teeth, trying to keep the limping to a minimum. He knew he was being watched. There was no way he would get away with hiding his torn pants or the pain.

Big Daniel, who was at the table eating a mushroom cheese omlette, raised his fork in greeting. “Hey.” Then he frowned. “What happened to you?”

“Slipped and fell.” It took him a moment to sit down on his chair. Bending his right leg took a bit of an effort. “Why are you having an omlette?”

“I hate barley,” BD said. “You know, it’s just… icky.”

“Can I have...”

“Sorry, but no.”

Daniel sighed. “Yeah, didn’t think so.”

Jack came over with a pair of scissors, crouched and started cutting the already ruined denim open to reveal a swollen knee. Daniel looked down at it and winced. No blood. But already a nice shade of blue and purple. He tried to swallow down the yelp when the area was gently probed.

“If you’d told me you were hurt I would have picked you up.” Coming to his feet, Jack put a hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “C’mon, you’re better off on the couch. But you will eat.”

“I’m fine,” Daniel muttered, but let Jack help him into the living room nevertheless. He sat on the couch and propped his foot up on a pillow, trying to ignore the pain spiking his knee with every single movement.

Jack left and returned with the pain gel and the ice pack. “Funny how your knee pads never seem to be properly in place whenever you hit your knees.”

“Mmmmh,” Daniel murmured and bit down on his bottom lip when Jack began to apply the gel.

Once a towel and the ice pack were put in place Jack propped another pillow behind Daniel’s back and left again, only to show up with a plate of the barely dish a moment later. “Enjoy.”

“Uh-huh.” Daniel took the fork and started picking at his food. “This is gross,” he murmured.

“It’s my mother’s recipe. And I happen to like it.” Jack pointed at the plate. “Eat.”

“I love your mom, Jack, but… it’s _barely_.” But he started eating and all things considered it wasn’t that bad. At least it didn’t make him gag like the barley stew they used to have on Abydos, which had actually been more of a glob. “You know it’s not fair to make me eat this. It’s not even my fault I’m late. It’s because I got hurt.”

“Did you call me when you got hurt?”

“No. I wasn’t late yet by the time I...” Daniel scowled. “Damn.”

“I cook, I get to choose what’s for dinner,” Jack smirked.

“BD has omlette.”

“He asked nicely. And he wasn’t late.”

Daniel took another bite. There were bell peppers, dried tomatoes, feta cheese and zucchini squash in it. All of that he liked, but the barley’s texture was just yucky. He decided to have his revenge as soon as it was his turn to cook again.

Jack sat down on the edge of the coffee table. “Is this going to become a habit?”

Daniel lowered his fork. “What?”

“Being late, skipping chores...”

“I didn’t skip...”

“You forgot to put the laundry into the dryer again before you left this morning. You were supposed to cook today. You were late last weekend, too.”

“Oh, the laundry. I totally forgot. I’m sorry, Jack, did you have to wash it again?”

“I did.”

Daniel cringed. For years now he had always taken pride in the fact that he was a fully functional part of this household, that – small exceptions aside – he contributed to keeping things going. Laundry, KP duty, cleaning; he did almost as much around here as Jack and BD.

Yes, he was sloppy and sometimes it showed, but he still did his chores. Most of the time.

But lately the weekends seemed to go by so fast and the hours slipped away between his fingers.

Because he was going out now. Learning how to skate. Spending a lot of time with his friends at the Rainbow Center.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated. He had said that a lot already tonight. Or in general lately. “I’m not doing it on purpose,” he tried to explain. “It just…”

“...happens, yeah.” Jack said. “I remember that from when I was your age.”

“You were never my age,” Daniel countered. “You were never twelve and forty something at the same time.”

“Right now you seem to lean more towards being twelve than forty something.” To Daniel’s surprise there was something like a smile tugging at the corner of Jack’s mouth.

“You think that’s a good thing?”

“I think it’s a good thing you’re out there having fun.” Jack cocked his head. “You are having fun, right?”

Daniel put his half empty plate on the coffee table. “Yes. I’m having fun.”

“There. Good thing. Taking your mind of all the bad stuff that happened over the last couple of years. Being a bit careless in the more harmless, non-life threatening way suits you.”

“Oh, okay.” He wriggled around a bit to find a more comfortable position for his propped up leg.

“Just remember it’s all about balance. And that twelve year olds can end up being grounded or having some privileges removed if they’re getting too careless.” Jack winked at him, but the warning was delivered and received loud and clear.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Daniel adjusted his cool pack and gazed at his knee. “Jack? How long do you think I need to stay off the board? It hurts more than usual.” Now he wished he had called Jack to pick him up after the fall. Instead he had stayed and watched Ron and Grey skate while Tara had kept him company. Later, they had gone to the Rainbow Cafe to eat muffins and have ice tea.

And then Jack had texted him, telling him to get home ASAP because he was already beyond the tolerated twenty minutes late time frame. When Daniel had realized riding his bike was more than just a little painful he had been too stubborn to call and ask to be picked up because despite the fact that he had been late, he felt controlled and annoyed that Jack texted him just because he’d missed his curfew by twenty, okay, thirty minutes…

In hindsight he felt like an idiot now.

“We’re gong to let Janet take a look at it tomorrow, but I think with a bruise like that… two weeks, probably three. You guys will just have to meet here and find something else to do for a while.”

“Oh noooo!” The whine had escaped him before he could hold it back and much to his embarrassment he felt the heat creep into his cheeks. “My birthday is in two weeks!”

But he had already feared the worst when he’d been on his way home and realized how much it hurt. He had a lot of experience with injuries of any kind.

“I’m sorry, buddy,” Jack said, genuine sympathy in his voice. “I know how badly you wanted to go to that skate park. But we should postpone, just to be on the safe side. That knee looks pretty banged up to me.”

Daniel swallowed a couple of times. This was not the end of the world. Just a back step. “It’s my own damn fault. I should’ve called you,” he admitted, fighting angry tears. Oh god, no. He couldn’t burst into tears in front of Jack. He started to get up, struggling, batting Jack’s hand away when he reached out to either help him or push him back down onto the couch. “Let me go… I’m fine.”

“Daniel...”

“It’s just a back step,” Daniel said through gritted teeth, “not the end of the world.” One of those phrases Doc Murphy had practiced with him. He wasn’t going to cry and he wasn’t going to throw a fit.

He limped across the living room, up the two steps and along the hallway, past BD who was just coming out of the kitchen, drying his hands on a tea towel.

Once he reached the sanctuary of his room, he closed the door with a thud and slumped on his bed, resting his throbbing knee on his folded comforter.

“Not the end of the world,” he muttered and slowly got his act together. He hated this. How his mood tended to switch on a dime sometimes, how just a bit of irritation could turn into anger for no real reason at all. He had talked to Doc Murphy about that and they had discussed breathing techniques and ways to self-calm and deescalate.

Daniel suspected it was going to get worse as puberty got a hold on him, but he was determined to work on this as best as he could.

However, the skate park had already been booked for his birthday and they were all looking forward to it. This was supposed to be it. His first birthday party with his friends. He was going to be a teenager. And for the first time in this second childhood, maybe in his life, he had been excited about his birthday.

And now he had to cancel or at least postpone the skate park because he had taken that stupid fall and then, to make it worse, stubbornly ridden his bike home.

It wasn’t the end of the world, but it sure stung. A lot.

* * *

Jack tossed the leftover from Daniel’s dinner into the trash and put the plate into the dishwasher. BD had taken over KP duty and was wiping the table.

“We can postpone the skate park,” Daniel said.

“Yeah. I’m gonna call them to see if we can just switch dates.”

“He took it pretty bad though, huh?”

Jack proceeded to put the rinsed pan and spatula into the dishwasher. “Maybe having him home bound for a while isn’t such a bad thing. Might remind him about the fact that there’s more to life than skateboarding. The kids can hang out here, play X-Box or whatever.”

“I’m sure they’ll do that...” The unspoken part of that sentence hung between them and Jack felt compelled to spell it out.

“...but it’s his birthday and he’s never been this hyped about his birthday before.” He closed the dishwasher.

Daniel hung the tea towel on its rack to dry. “Yeah, it’s like a milestone.”

“Kids,” Jack said slowly. “He invited KIDS to his birthday.”

“And that’s different from when he was friends with Al. This feels much more...”

“Real?”

Jack had met Tara last summer on Little Daniel’s vision quest to the mountains. Oh yeah, those two had hit it off like a house on fire – had started their friendship with getting in heaps of trouble, smoking weed and being stuck on Knight’s Peak until Jack and Daniel had picked them up.

The two boys, Ronald and Greyson, Jack had gotten to know later last fall when Daniel had started to invite his friends over from time to time. But it still had taken several months before the four of them really started to bond over Daniel’s new found love – skateboarding.

He had taken a look at the boys’ track records and pieced together his own picture from the bits and pieces the Daniels had told him about the new buddies. Ronald Wilmerson was a bit of a rebellious dreamer, graffiti artist – according to LD he kept working on art projects on the walls of the Rainbow Center and according to Pete he had been caught twice for spraying in places he wasn’t supposed to do it. However, according to LD Ron had stopped spraying public property ever since he had been allowed to work out his creativity at the center.

Ron used to compete in statewide skateboarding competitions together with Greyson, when they had been kids, but both had retired from that a couple of years ago. Parents both civilians, two older brothers, no crimes except for those two acts of vandalism.

His buddy, Greyson Bartok, had a similar background. Skate competitions from age six to twelve, now fifteen years old, 10th grade. But unlike Ron whose only goals in life seemed to be skating and graffiti, Grey also played baseball at school and was at the top of most of his classes. Ron was bi, Grey was gay.

Jack wondered what had ended their skate competition career. Their coming out? He doubted it. He didn’t take the skate community for being homophobe. Daniel had told him there was something called Unitiy Queer Skateboarding supporting LGBT skateboarders.

“Yes. It seems very real,” BD agreed. “I’ve watched them at the center.”

“What, you spied on them?” Jack grinned.

Once the Ori wars had ended and the SGC had been back on a routine – whatever that meant in their line of work - Daniel had returned to his volunteer work at the center whenever he found the time to hold history or anthropology classes. The interest had dwindled down somewhat this summer – probably due to kids being on vacation – so he hadn’t been there a lot lately. But last winter and spring he had spent quite some time with the LGBT kids teaching them the fascinating intel of historical myths.

“I didn’t ‘spy’. I just saw them here and there when they weren’t skating. Daniel seems relaxed when he’s with them. He seems… almost like a real kid. I can’t explain it, he’s just kind of different. Not at all like he used to behave when he was with Al.”

“Al was a responsibility.” Jack hoped Daniel’s new friends didn’t turn out to be a responsibility. The kid had enough baggage to carry around, he didn’t need to burden himself with his friends’ problems as well. He hoped they were equals, buddies, good pals.

_And if either of them ever _ _hurt_ _s_ _ my kid they better move to Oz before I get hold of them._

“I can’t believe it’s been six years.” Daniel sat down at the kitchen table, gazing out the window.

Jack switched the coffee maker on and busied himself with getting out mugs, cream and sugar. The machine spluttered and rattled, then the red ‘ready’ light blinked and a moment later strong black coffee poured into two mugs.

Some conversations were best had with beer, wine or coffee.

“I still don’t remember any of this,” Daniel continued in a low voice. “Of the time I was downsized until I got back my life. I have tried. There’s just a blank spot. And everything after that… your death, Anubis’ attack on Earth in my timeline, me going to Egypt and changing the timeline… almost feels like a bad dream now.”

Jack put a mug in front of Daniel; two sugars, one blurb of cream. Daniel gave him a quick smile and Jack returned it as he leaned back against the counter, taking in the sight of this guy who had showed up in Egypt almost four years ago like a fata morgana, like a piece from Jack’s past – but breathing, alive, solid.

“Maybe it’s for the best,” Jack mused. “That you don’t remember. I’m not sure I could’ve dealt with that very well.” It had taken him long enough to get over his own hang ups about falling again for this Daniel while the other one had still been a munchkin.

He still preferred not to dwell on that particular paradox too much.

“Oh, yeah, let’s not… go there,” BD muttered, but then he turned his brilliant blue eyes on Jack. “It’s just that I always wanted to understand him better, to figure out what it feels like. Being me and being… him. Or remembering being me. And now being… him.” He frowned and shook his head. “Is this alternate reality stuff giving you a headache, too?”

“Major headache.” Jack raised his coffee at him. “Cheers.”

“And now….”

“Thirteen.” Jack drawled.

“I wonder where he’ll be when he’s eighteen, twenty one… For a while now I’ve been thinking that maybe he’s going to choose a different path than he did the first time around. And that’s weird.”

“He’s always gonna be _you_ to an extent. Daniel; geek boy, plant boy, book boy - and now skate boy.”

Daniel snorted, but sobered quickly. “When we… I… he… turned thirteen the first time around it was in the middle of moving from one foster family to another. No one realized it was my birthday. What I do remember is that I thought how I was one year closer to becoming of age, of being independent, of getting out of the system.”

“No kid should have a reason to think that way. Well, except for the stupid reasons like no more curfews, no more pesky parents to tell them what to do, getting a driver license, being allowed to drink… those are reasons kids should be looking forward to growing up.”

“Yeah. He’s very lucky this time around and even though he doesn’t always feel that way, he knows it.”

Jack put his mug down. “I’m gonna check on his knee.”

He opened the freezer and pulled another ice pack out. When he entered Daniel’s room he found his son on his bed, knee propped up on two pillows, with his laptop in his lap.

“Hey.” Jack walked in and settled on the edge of the bed.

“Hey. Sorry for the outburst back there, that was pretty dumb, huh? As you can see I have recovered without breaking down.”

“Hail, Dorothy,” Jack said and Daniel gave him a grin which looked more like a grimace. “I brought a new ice pack.” Jack leaned over and carefully put a towel and the pack in place. When his fingertips touched the skin it felt hot and swollen.

Daniel flinched and hissed, “Thanks.”

“Janet should do an MRI. Might be worse than we thought.” He stomped down on the flare of irritation, but couldn’t stop himself from growling, “_Wear those knee pads, Daniel_.”

The soon-to-be teenager ducked his head, mumbling, “Yessir.”

“I mean it. And you better not get caught skating without your helmet.”

“I won’t get caught.” A glint of defiance and mischief in those blue eyes.

Jack cuffed his head lightly. “I don’t ever want to be called into a hospital because you cracked your skull open on the pavement. Got that?”

A sigh answered him. “Jack. The helmet is mandatory at the center anyway, you know that. Relax, okay?”

Right.

“Do you need anything? Tylenol?”

“A new leg?”

“The skate park won’t go away.”

Another sigh and a nod. “I know.”

Jack caught a glimpse of the website Daniel had open on his laptop. Skateboarding tutorial videos. Of course. Still, he asked, “What are you watching there?”

“A Daewon Song video. He’s a genius technical street skater – wanna see?”

“Sure. Scoot.” Daniel made room and Jack settled down next to him.

Daniel explained all of Song’s moves, all the jumps, pointed out which ones he had already tried and mastered and which ones he was still figuring out.

It wasn’t news that Daniel had become hooked on his new hobby and it wasn’t the first time Jack or BD had been subjected to Skateboarding 101, but it still made Jack look at his kid in wonder.

Not the passion. Daniel – at any age – had always been the passionate guy, the obsessed guy even. But the subject of his new passion was so vastly different from anything Jack would have imagined to be a Daniel thing.

“Did you know that the first skateboards were nothing but wooden boxes, or boards, with roller skate wheels attached to the bottom. Then the boxes turned into planks which were similar to the boards we have today,” Daniel said. “The first skateboards as we know them probably came out in the 1940ties. Surfers in California wanted to surf even when the waves were flat.” He grinned. “I bet you’d be a skateboarder or street hockey player if you’d grown up in California instead of Minnesota.”

“Maybe.” Jack had probably gotten his first skates at the same time he had started walking; he couldn’t even remember how or when he had learned to skate. He just remembered ice skating and hockey being a part of his life forever until he had left and joined the USAF and flying had become his new thing.

Daniel clicked through several more videos and they watched another one. Different guy, different venue and board.

None of those skateboarding cracks wore knee pads or helmets of course. Wouldn’t be cool. Jack knew first hand how protective gear could limit the range of movement, how one tended to sweat like a pig underneath the helmet and how annoying it was when it trickled into the eyes. He had always worn protective gear when playing hockey at the rink of course, but never outside when he’d skated on the lake.

And he was fully aware that he could threaten Daniel with severe consequences for not wearing his gear all he wanted… if Daniel decided he didn’t need to wear those pads he would just haul them back and forth to the skate rink without putting them on like he had done for the last couple of months.

Maybe having his knee screwed up would teach him.

Then again getting hurt or dying had never kept Doctor Jackson from doing what he thought he needed to do or – in this case – wanted to do.

“Here’s something for you, Jack.” Daniel opened another video. The main theme of The Simpsons played up and for the next five minutes Jack and Little D were snickering over Bart Simpson’s skating antics.

  


Later, long after LD had taken a Tylenol and changed the ice pack on his knee one last time before he had gone to sleep, Jack was lying in bed wide awake, watching his lover sleep. There were no signs of looming nightmares tonight and no crease of worry or heavy thoughts on Big Daniel’s face. He was on his side, one leg pulled up, his right cheek resting on one arm.

Jack loved watching him sleep like this.

But tonight his mind was wandering, relentlessly taking him back to stuff that had happened over the last six years. Jack tried to shake it off; he wasn’t usually the dwelling kind of guy and when his demons threatened to catch up with him he knew how to deal with them. Apparently tonight the ghosts of his past were out to get him. He had flashes of Daniel getting lost on that planet with the Yggdrasil, how he had almost died when Reese knocked him against a wall and how Oma had then messed with his mind, putting the burden of carrying the Ancient’s knowledge onto him. How he had almost died again of the plague in Antarctica. His struggle and dwindling life energy when they had been stuck on Ba’al’s ship until his mind slowly started to disintegrate.

_He’s home, he’s safe and _ _he might _ _break a leg or an arm skateboarding, but he won’t be kidnapped by the Goa’uld and those pesky Ancients will hopefully leave him alone if they know what’s good for them. No need to go all PTSD here, O’Neill. _

Jack had learned how to stop this train of thought during his Special Ops training. The ability to go to sleep whenever and wherever the opportunity occurred had been part of that training, too.

But tonight he ended up getting out of bed and meeting the dog in the kitchen. It happened. Occasionally.

Flyboy looked up from the bowl of water he had been lapping at.

“Can’t sleep, buddy?” Jack yawned, scratched the back of his head and opened the fridge to look for beer. No cold ones. Great. He opened cupboards in search for a snack, got hold of a jar of peanuts, opened it and started flipping them into his mouth.

He should turn on the TV, watch some mindless crap until this episode was over. That usually helped.

Instead he found himself standing in LD’s room a moment later, looking down at the sleeping boy who would be a man again in just a couple of years. And who, in the meantime, deserved the absolute best second chance at being a teenager he could get.

“Aw, screw it,” Jack whispered.

He sat down at the foot of Daniel’s bed and reached out, placing first one and then the other hand gently on the hot swollen knee. Jack usually didn’t give in to using his little bit of Ancient mambo-jambo on humans because he opted for being careful. He had no idea who might catch wind of the kind of energy he was playing with here.

But he wasn’t totally out of practice either. He had patched up the dog from time to time, just minor stuff. Cuts, a strained limp, that kind of thing. Small bursts, almost a mere lay up of hands there.

Humans were a tad more complicated and needed a lot more energy.

And focusing.

Daniel moaned and tossed his head when the energy started flowing, emitting a faint glow around the boy’s knee. Jack suppressed a grunt when, for the blink of an eye, Daniel’s pain was transferred to his own body. His fingertips gently probed the meniscus. Fluid drained from the injured knee and whatever had been damaged during the fall was repaired.

Jack felt his focus slip as leaden weariness settled over his mind and body. He pulled back and sat with slumped shoulders for a couple of minutes, trying not to fall off the bed and go to sleep right here on Daniel’s bedroom floor.

Rubbing tired eyes he came to his feet and with one last look at Daniel to make sure he was still in slumberland, he left and, a moment later, fell exhausted into his own bed.

Beside him BD stirred, rolled over and blindly reached for him in the dark. “J’ck?”

“Go back to sleep,” he murmured, but was grateful for the solid warmth of Daniel’s body spooning up to him and the arm pulling him in close.

“You’re cold.” Daniel nuzzled his neck.

“I’m good,” Jack whispered and was out like a light.


	2. July

**July**

**II**

  


“So, this is how it's gonna be from now on.” Jack scowled at what was left of the huge peanutbutter chocolate cake sitting in the middle of the picnic table. Merely crumbs and one sad looking sloppy piece, slowly melting in the hot July afternoon sun. “They come, they inhale the cake like the plague of locusts and off they go to have fun.”

“And you can feel honored to be allowed to drive them,” the grownup birthday boy said with a theatralic sigh. “Ungrateful bunch, all of them.”

Jack aimed his scowl at him. “Are you mocking me, Doctor Jackson?”

Eyebrows wandered upwards. “Moi? I would never do such a thing, mon general.”

“Mon general my ass,” Jack grumbled.

“Are you not happy that young Daniel is having fun on his birthday, O'Neill?” Teal'c's voice rumbled on Jack's left side.

“Yeah, sure, I am.” And he was. They all were.

“Jack is just pissed they don't want to teach him. Being the biggest kid of all he wants to play with them. He doesn’t like to be excluded from all the fun,” Daniel explained with a smirk.

“I don't need those brats to teach me how to skate,” Jack muttered. “I've been skating all my life. With skates. Not with some weird board.”

“The weird board is what makes all the difference,” Daniel pointed out.

“It has wheels. Skates have wheels or runners. Can't be that much of a difference.”

Jack let his eyes wander across the concrete area with all its craters which were called bowls or pools, not craters, but to Jack they still looked like moon craters. Up and down the hillsides and in and out of the craters, bowls, whatever, and along their edges people were sliding, jumping, rolling and skirting on their boards or skates. He had to admit it tickled his skater bone to try this. Looked like a blast. But he had knees. And back.

In other terms; he was old.

LD and his merry gang of skater buddies had hogged one of those pools at the outskirts of the skating area, playing in something that looked like a giant eight-shaped bathtub with different grades of flowing descends built into its walls. A flowing bowl.

Ron and Grey treated their boards as if they were extensions of their feet. Every single move appeared easy and flowing. Jack knew from long years of hockey experience how much body control one needed to make it look like that. Tara was a reckless little spitfire, racing down the bowl like an elf on Speed, her feet and legs flying when she jumped or spun, her body gracefully complying. She was less aloof than the other two, but still elegant in her own style.

Little D was the focused one. Still on the learning curve, trying himself out on his board, testing his limits in the typical Daniel Jackson fashion. He wasn't as reckless as Tara and the boys, but he didn't know fear either. Jack had treated countless bruises and small grazes over the first couple of weeks when Daniel had taken up skateboarding seriously. Ice gel and band aids had become some of the essential must-haves at home.

The injuries had become much less lately and the recent knee incident had been the first serious one after a long period of bruise-free time. The morning after Daniel had banged up his knee he’d come into the kitchen where Jack had his second mug of coffee and just looked at him with round baffled eyes.

“Jack? Did you…?” He had bent and stretched his leg, hopped up and down on the balls of his feet twice and then kicked air. “Did you do this?”

“Nice, eh?” Jack had picked up the paper and looked for the cartoon section.

Little D had gotten himself some coffee, sat down opposite of Jack and murmured, “Wow, that’s… I mean, thanks. A lot. I… I’m not sure I deserve this. But… wow.”

“Take it as an early birthday present.”

Jack wasn’t sure he had done the right thing. He probably should have let Daniel live with the natural consequences of not wearing his damn knee pads and riding his bike home with an injured knee. But, hey, you only turned thirteen once… or twice in this case… and Daniel had suffered more painful life lessons than most people Jack knew.

_And does he ever learn?_

But right now the brat was having fun racing around in that skate bowl, taking a break from all the hassle in their lives.

Jack could live with that.

“He's getting good at it,” BD observed, shaking his head. “I had no idea he had this in him. I certainly don't.”

“What? Skating?” Jack adjusted his cap and watched as his kid let his board slide down the bowl, waited a couple of seconds, then jumped and came to stand on it in mid slide, rolling down the rest of the way.

“All of it. This whole need to move, work out in his gym...” BD rolled his eyes.

Jack eyed his pretty well built SO for a moment. “Look who's talking.”

“That's different. I'm doing it because it's hard to run for your life, shoot and roll over if you're not trained for it. Work out is routine. I don't have to l_ike_ it.”

“Maybe you never allowed yourself to like it,” Teal'c said thoughtfully.

“What do you mean?” Daniel frowned and sipped at this coffee.

“He means you're trying too hard to keep the geek cover going while we all know that deep down inside you're Indy Jackson,” Jack said with a snort.

“Damn. And here I thought I was doing so well.” BD took aim at the trashcan and tossed his empty coffee-to-go cup straight into it. “He shoots, he scores!”

Teal'c glowered at the last piece of cake. “We should have two cakes next year if young Daniel continues to invite friends to his birthday.”

“There's a thought. Two birthday boys, two cakes, makes total sense to me,” Jack agreed. Especially keeping in mind that next year Carter and Pete – plus their soon to be expected daughter – would be part of the birthday gang again. They had to bow out this time because the ongoing heatwave got to Carter. She had been determined to come anyway, but apparently her body had had other ideas and she and Pete were home where it was cool and she could rest and put her feet up which, according to her, looked like air balloons due to retained water.

“I don't need my own cake, thank you very much,” Daniel muttered.

“I do.” Teal'c deadpanned.

As if the word 'cake' had telepathically been sent across the skate park the kids abandoned their flowing bowl and trudged over, carrying their boards and helmets under their arms.

The gang arrived just as Teal'c scooped up the sad last piece. He always finished the cake. It was tradition and no one dared to challenge him on it.

That was until today.

“Are you seriously gonna eat that?” the lanky teen with the raven black hair asked, disbelief lacing his voice.

Teal'c looked at his plate, then at the boy's raised eyebrows.

“But it's the last piece.”

“Indeed.”

“And we've been working off all the cake we ate while you were just sitting here, doing squat.”

“Indeed.” Teal'c began eating his cake.

“Roooon,” Tara groaned.

“Whaaat?” Ron shrugged. “I'm hungry.”

“You had three pieces of cake.” LD snorted as he pulled off his knee and elbow pads which looked as good as new with not a smudge on them. But at least he’d worn them – knowing he was being watched today.

The helmet, which did sport the obligatory signs of wear, landed on the pile in the grass by the table where the other kids had left their gear, too.

“That was hours ago. Hours.” Ron threw himself on one of the chairs and grabbed a bottle of Gatorade, opened it and downed half of it in one go.

“There're sandwiches in the cooler,” LD pointed out.

“Thank god!” Ron and Tara opened the box and investigated its contents while Greyson, a rather quiet guy with back gelled blond hair and a small silver ring in his left ear, went for a bottle of Gatorade.

“Ham and cheese!” Tara held up one of the labeled lunch bags the Daniels had put together for the birthday outing this morning.

“Gimme!” Grey caught it and peered inside. “Nice!”

“Peanutbutter Jelly!”

Ron snatched it out of her hands.

Chicken salad and eggs were handed over to ‘Murray’, the other two PB and jelly sandwiches went to Jack and LD, the hummus tomato avocado sandwich to BD.

Jack opened his bag and frowned at the dessert. He eyed Big Daniel’s hummus thingy and grimaced, but pointed at his bag. “What ya got for dessert?” He held up his bag of M&Ms.

“Twinky. And no, I'm not gonna trade.”

“Neither will I.” Teal'c put a protective hand over his chocolate Ding Dong.

The kids gathered around the picnic table next to theirs and immediately launched into a discussion about boards, tricks, techniques and whether the concrete here made for good skating ground or not.

Jack watched them from behind his sunshades, using the rare opportunity of having them all together to observe. All of them had been at their house a couple of times, playing X-box, raiding their fridge or working out in LD’s gym in the basement. But mostly it was just Tara and Grey who came over. Ron seemed to be a bit more distant, maybe because at almost sixteen he felt awkward about being friends with a ‘baby’ of thirteen. Jack remembered that an age gap of three years felt like being a whole generation apart when you were at the ripe age of sixteen.

He had no problem with Ron being a bit of a punk and a bit on the glamour side with his finger rings, bracelets and necklaces. Today he had donned a silver necklace with a miniature skateboard pendant and his feet stuck in rainbow colored ankle sneakers. Jack was good with all that and while he wasn’t too impressed with the graffiti vandalism he’d been sixteen himself once and had skirted the law here and there because being sixteen usually came with the overconfidence of youth and a know-it-all attitude.

But he knew Daniel had been bullied as kid. Severely. Which was one of the reasons why he had stayed clear of children for the most part after the downsizing. Daniel, the guy who could talk rings about humans and aliens alike and make them listen, had been tongue tied and almost paralyzed when confronted with kids in the first year after the downsizing and it had taken a lot of work and courage for him to overcome those resurfacing demons of his first childhood.

Jack wanted to be sure there was no underlying tension, no hidden threats coming from the older boy. And even though he was pretty sure Daniel could handle conflicts with kids just fine these days, he needed to know LD felt absolutely safe with Ron.

So he watched them goof around as they ate their lunch, do their cocky thing, bicker a little, giggle a lot, push each other around a bit – with Daniel in the middle of it all.

Like he had never been anywhere or done anything else.

“Stop doing your special ops thing and leave those kids alone,” BD muttered, nudging Jack’s knee with his.

“I was napping,” Jack said, face straight.

“Of course you were.”

“What is the meaning of rainbow colors connected to ones orientation,” Teal’c asked out of the blue. “I notice young Daniel’s friends wearing a lot of jewelry and pins representing colors of the rainbow and he told me it has to do with pride and orientation outside of what the Tau’ri see as the norm.”

Little D had gotten a gift card for the Spring's local skate shop for Christmas so he could assemble his very own custom made board. He had put a lot of thought into the design and read a lot about what would be the perfect size, wheels, deck, shape, color. He had wanted to put a golden Earth symbol on his board, but Jack couldn’t let him do that and in the end he had settled for a black deck with a dreamcatcher in rainbow colors. Jack knew Daniel was well aware that even as a civilian he was better off keeping his orientation low key at the mountain, but he seemed to have developed a bit of that LGBT pride his friends were proudly wearing on their sleeves.

The rainbow theme was definitely a thing. They all carried it in one way or the other. On their boards, as jewelry, on their ballcaps or as buttons pinned to their shirts.

Jack turned to BD. “Knock yerself out. Educate him.”

* * *

Tara swallowed her mouthful of sandwich and washed it down with her Gatorade. “This is a cool party, D.”

“For a kid's party,” Ron threw in with a devilish smirk aimed at LD.

“Nope, this IS a great party.” Grey kicked his friend's shin under the table. “Don't be a jerk, jerk.”

Ron just laughed and snatched Grey's lunch bag. “Reese's peanut butter cup, yay!”

LD smothered a smile. Sometimes those two reminded him of Jack and Daniel. Or of Jack and himself. Always some bantering going on.

“So,” Tara grabbed the peanut butter cups from Ron and threw them at Daniel who caught them and handed them back to Grey, “when you guys are done playing, can we get to the point here?”

“What point?” Daniel asked. Had he missed something? They had just talked about jumping techniques. But there hadn't been any particular point to get to as far as he was concerned.

Ron, who was currently trying to wrestle the peanut butter cups from Grey until both of them almost fell off the bench, laughed. “There’s a point?”

Grey, who was as blond headed as Ron was black headed, smacked his friend's arm away, held the peanut butter cups over his head and then threw them across the table to Tara who caught them. “Point! Greyson 1 – Ronald 0!”

“Hey, you dip...” Ron quickly swallowed down the insult and peered at the neighboring table, where Jack, Teal’c and BD were engrossed in a lively conversation. “Dipshit,” he stage whispered at Grey who started laughing and almost spit out his drink.

Tara rolled her eyes. “Why can’t you just _ask_ him if he’s willing to share?” Then she buried her face in her hands. “Oh god, I sound like my own mother. This is what you idiots are driving me to! Behave!”

“Boring.” Ron shrugged, then added, “_mom_.”

_This is so normal,_ Daniel thought with wonder as he joined in the laughter. It was so familiar – almost like when he was with Jack, BD, Sam and Teal’c. He had never experienced this kind of easy bonding before he had joined SG-1 and never expected to find this kind of belonging elsewhere.

And here he was. Part of this. Of them. Like he was just one of the guys. It was amazing.

And a little bit scary, because it re-ignited this feeling of being torn in the two directions of his being.

He glanced at the other table where BD was talking to Teal’c while Jack sat and watched, a smug grin on his face. Daniel didn’t know what was going on over there, but it looked as if BD was explaining some strange cultural thing Teal’c wanted to know about and Jack was having a ball watching BD in lecture mode. Part of Daniel felt like he should sit over there with them because that’s where he really belonged.

But apparently it wasn’t cool to hang out with the adults at the same table.

Who would have thought that his kid-side finally fit in somewhere.

He tried to focus on his friends, but couldn’t help listening in to the conversation at the other table.

“…. so Baker saw the rainbow as a natural flag from the sky. He adopted eight colors for the stripes, each color with its own meaning. Red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, violet for spirit...”

“Pink for hot sex,” Jack threw in, sipping his coffee.

“I see,” Teal’c nodded. “So it is based on art. A symbol to represent pride and freedom to be one’s self without restriction. A symbol which was created because one of Americas first elected officials who was openly gay wanted it so.”

“Pretty much.”

“And yet, the military does not agree with this.”

“It’s a conflicted subject, you know that,” Jack said.

Teal’c bowed his head in silent agreement.

A tap on his shoulder reminded Daniel of his other guests and he turned back to them. “Sorry. What?”

Tara patted his arm. “There’s something we’d like you to see.”

Daniel’s focus immediately switched back to what was going on at his own table. “See what?”

Tara’s green eyes sparkled boisterously. “Something really cool. It’s our birthday present for you.”

He opened his mouth to remind her that they had already given him presents, but she shook her head.

“Special treat,” Grey said.

Ron didn’t say anything. He leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms as Tara continued, “Look, it’s always been just the three of us. As long as I remember, I’ve been stuck with these weirdos and we never let anyone else in.”

“Until now,” Grey threw in.

“We decided we like you,” Ron said and Daniel could clearly hear the unspoken ‘but’. The other boy didn’t look at him, his eyes were fixed on the table and there was the hint of a scowl on his face. “I would have just left it at that, but they want to make you part of the gang.”

“You said...” Tara snapped, but Ron cut her off.

“I said I bow to the majority.”

Daniel blinked. “Okay… the majority of what? What’s going on here?” Were they going to put him through some kind of ritual to make him part of the ‘gang’? A dare? A skating challenge?

“We want you to hang out with us. If that’s what you want, D,” Grey said, seemingly unaffected by Ron’s mood.

“Isn’t that what we’re already doing? At the center? Hang out?” Every weekend to be specific and sometimes during the week after Daniel’s Doc Murphy appointment. Tara and the guys always seemed to be at the center in the late afternoon hours ever since school was out.

“Yeah, sure, but that’s not the only place.” Grey and Tara exchanged a knowing look and a grin. She leaned over the table towards Daniel and dropped her voice a notch. “You know John and Josh’s Ice Cream on Pike’s Peak Avenue?”

Daniel answered with a nod. He had lived close by when he had been big. He had never been there then, but a couple of years ago he, Al and his family and SG-1 had been there after a paintball match.

“Can you get away to meet us there on Sunday? At 15:00?”

“Can’t you say three like normal people?” Ron rolled his eyes.

Tara shrugged. “Sorry, military brat here.”

Daniel went through his weekend schedule in his mind and Sunday was a go. No plans he could think off right now. Sundays were usually reserved for everyone to relax or putter around the house with whatever they wanted to do. Or, in Daniel’s case, going out to skate without having to worry about chores, lunch or anything else. “I can be there.”

Tara gave him a huge grin. “Cool. Oh, and bring your board.”

  



	3. III

**III**

  


Heavy clouds hovered above Colorado Springs on Sunday afternoon. Dark and threatening, they had purged almost all sunlight from the sky and the city was shrouded in that gloomy dusty twilight foreshadowing a thunderstorm.

Daniel could already smell the rain in the haze of the afternoon heat as he rode his bike along the last two blocks of office buildings before he entered his old home district. The streets were almost empty, as if everyone had sought shelter to wait for the storm. The city itself seemed to have fallen asleep.

It was kind of eerie, this total quiet. Not a single gust of wind, not even a breeze, just the sweltering heat. The birds had stopped singing, even the sounds of traffic seemed muted.

Far away, probably still over the mountains, he heard the first rumblings of thunder.

They had chatted on AIM around noon, debating whether or not to postpone to next week, but Grey and Ron were headed to summer skate camp on Monday for two weeks and apparently showing Daniel their secret ‘go to’ place was something they all wanted to do together so they had decided to meet anyway.

Another faint rumble.

Daniel spotted the traffic light at the junction ahead changing to green. He kicked his pedals harder and zoomed across, barely reaching the other side of the road before the light jumped back to red.

The big letters of ‘John and Josh’s Ice Cream’ above the doors of the parlor were a bright yellow in the otherwise dusky afternoon sky.

He locked his bike to a street light pole next to Tara’s and checked his phone before going in. No texts from Jack or BD. That was good. No questions meant no explanation needed about why he chose to go out in this kind of weather.

Jack and BD were at Sam and Pete’s house, sanding and varnishing floorboards, window frames and the door of the nursery. Daniel had done his bit last week by dismantling shelves and peeling off the old wallpaper of what used to be Sam’s and Pete’s junk room.

Next week they would paint the walls and do the Ikea haul for furniture and whatever else Sam had put on her ‘nursery list’.

It was odd how much had changed and was still in the flow of changing since the Ori wars were over. SG-1 as a front line team was basically no more. Sam would be on maternity leave soon, Teal’c divided his time between the Jaffa High Council and doing team hopping at the SGC and BD only went off world when his expertise was needed on something specific. Working at the SGC had almost come close to a routine office job for the most part, except for the occasional first contact conflicts or interplanetary issues from allies.

And this was why Daniel felt he had the luxury of time to indulge in this.

Being a kid. Exploring the fun side of life. Now, maybe for the first time, he was doing it without feeling pressured on some unconscious level because he felt he should be out there, saving the world or helping with some crisis.

Tara and the boys were already at a table, eating ice cream cones when he entered the otherwise empty parlor. There was no one behind the counter so Daniel didn’t feel obligated to order something. He was about to sit on the empty seat at the table when Ron pursed his lips and unfolded himself from his chair. “You’re late,” he said curtly. “We should go.”

“Yeah, sorry, been busy,” Daniel muttered.

“Busy doing what?” Ron threw back over his shoulder. He was already out the door and on his way to the bikes.

Daniel had spent the morning sorting through and organizing a folder of research notes about a Mayan legend that featured highly in the culture of a new world SG-3 had encountered. And as usual he’d been so engrossed in his work that he had forgotten time – and then it had occurred to him it was his turn to cook and he had quickly prepared dinner for tonight, which had taken a while.

He checked his watch. Yes, he was late, but not that late and he didn’t need Ron to act like Jack used to whenever Daniel had been late to the gateroom.

“What’s with him?” he asked Tara as he unlocked his bike.

“Oh, don’t mind him, he’s being a prick as usual,” Grey answered instead of Tara who just rolled her eyes.

_Their team dynamic is interesting_, Daniel thought. Ron wasn’t exactly a ‘leader’, but everyone seemed to indulge him up to a point and just tolerate his moods and antics. Tara and Grey would set him straight from time to time, but on the whole no one seemed to be bothered by Ron being a diva or a jerk at times.

As he followed his new friends down the road he suppressed a groan. This wasn’t some new SG team he had signed up for. They were just kids and he didn’t have to analyze their team dynamic to figure out how they would work together in the field. Then again it was probably just in his nature to do it.

They rode past his old apartment building and he couldn’t help but look up at what used to be his balcony so many years ago. Then the moment was gone and he spotted the old Spring Mall ahead of them. To his surprise it had apparently closed down some time ago.

As Ron led them around the building and across the huge parking lot, Daniel allowed himself a moment of going down memory lane about this place from his past.

He used to have lunch at the small Chinese place upstairs and hang out with Jack at the Starbucks. It was the Spring Mall Starbucks he and Jack had been to on that fateful day they had made the transition from being complicated, conflicted best friends to lovers.

Now, what used to be a shopping palace with panorama windows and sparkling lights was nothing more than a concrete klutz with several smashed windows on the upper levels. Some of those windows had been boarded up, but some were still open like gaping dark holes with jagged teeth of broken glass.

When Ron, Tara and Grey stopped by a side entrance and pushed their bikes behind one of the formerly groomed and now wild growing hedges, Daniel realized Spring Mall was actually their mysterious to-go place.

He opened his mouth to say things like ‘trespassing’, ‘illegal’ and – most of all - ‘what if we get caught’… and then didn’t say anything but pulled his skateboard off his bike and hurried to join them by the door where Ron easily pulled aside one of the wooden boards and slipped through the gap.

They all followed him without a hitch and then stood in the twilight for a moment, listening to the first real thunder clapping and the starting of rain – a low gentle but steady rush. Somewhere upstairs the flapping of wings and the low coo coo of a dove indicated the presence of birds.

“This is it?” Daniel looked around, taking in the closed down shops with their former bright neon signs which were now dark and covered in grime. Some shops had shutters, but most of them only had glass fronts. There was light falling in from somewhere above into the center of the ground level where the escalator was.

“This is it,” Ron confirmed. His voice had a slight reverberation and in the half-light, his raven colored hair was an even greater contrast to his fair skin. His eyes were shadowed and a slightly mocking smile curved his full lips. “What? Scared?”

“No. Just surprised. How did you end up coming here?”

“Larry and Mark took me here when we were still hunting abandoned places. They thought it was boring, but I liked it right away,” Tara said and Daniel wondered if he was the only one noticing how her voice dropped at the name of her cousin who had died off world last summer. “I showed Ron and Grey and we started meeting here and then, when no one chased us away, we kind of settled in.”

Grey appeared somewhat elvish in this play of shadow and diffuse light with his almost white blond hair. “C’mon, we’ll give you the tour.” He pulled something out of the pocket of his pants which turned out to be a flashlight.

They made their way into one of the shops, a former drugstore, stepping through where a floor-to-ceiling window used to be. Some of the shelves still contained jars of vitamin pills and there was a stand with an advertising sign for band aids. Several packages of Lucky Whites and bandages were still in the stand.

It felt a bit like after the zombie apocalypse.

Daniel spotted a former colorful and now very dusty range of condoms on another stand. Ron followed his gaze and snorted. “If you need any, help yourself. I’ll give you a clue; they’re not balloons.”

“Thanks, but I don’t want to get anyone pregnant. They’re probably expired.” Daniel shrugged. “They usually have a shelf life of five years.” He couldn’t see Ron’s face because it was even more dark in here than in the hallway, but he heard Grey cough and Tara giggle.

Ron threw up his hands. “Today’s youth! So premature! When I was your age I still played with dolls.”

“All his action men had sex all day long,” Grey elaborated.

“No, they didn’t. They went on missions.”

“With no clothes on,” Tara laughed.

“Shut up, Tink. I got them downhanded from my brothers. Most of them didn’t have clothes anymore.”

Grey led them behind a long counter and carefully stepped around several crates on the ground. Daniel realized they were filled with bottles of Seven Up and Coke. And on top of one of them he spotted bags of chips, Diary chocolate buttons and Reeses peanut butter cups. Next to the crates three skateboards were neatly propped against the counter.

“You guys skate in here?”

“Oh, yeah.” Tara waved at the supplies. “Help yourself. We’re going upstairs.”

Everyone grabbed drinks, snacks and their board. Daniel settled for a bottle of Coke and followed his friends back into the hallway.

They headed to the escalator and trudged upstairs. When Daniel looked up, his gaze was met by a vaulted ceiling and dark clouds, only blurry silhouettes in the pouring rain, moving fast beyond the glass roof.

“It’s much brighter in here when the sun is out,” Tara explained. “It’s a bit like a dome.”

Just when they were halfway up white lightning shot through the roof, illuminating everything around them for just a second before it was gone again.

The upper level was less dark even now. There were plants in large sliver pots. A leftover from the mall decorations. Some were dead, but others were thriving and growing towards the roof. One of them, some kind of ivy, had conquered a wall and one of the columns in the corners.

Daniel spotted a Spencer Gifts shop, Hallmark Cards and a drugstore. The signs over the doors were still there, so were some of the opening hour prints and posters advertizing 'on sale' products for ‘summer’s end 2005’.

He remembered where the Starbucks used to be, on the other side of the dead escalators. And sure enough, when they walked around the next corner, the green and white logo with the mermaid came into view. The doors were closed, of course.

They all settled down in one of the mall’s seating area. Daniel couldn’t remember the comfortable chairs with the adjustable backrests and cup holders in the arm rests. He had usually just gone to one of the restaurants when he had come here and never bothered to sit down anywhere else. An oval of gray carpet divided the seating areas from the rest of the mall's fake-wood floor.

“Here you’ll have the best underground to skate,” Ron said. “Maybe not as good as real wood, but better than concrete because it has a bit of a grip, but is still smooth and the coating is still pretty good.”

“And that’s why you come here?” Daniel looked around and noticed how clean the floor was up here.

Grey must have read his thoughts because he grinned. “We clean it. Brought a broom and a Swiffer set. Can’t skate on a dirty floor. And there’re bird droppings we need to get rid of.”

“But why we really come here,” Tara said as she laid back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling, “is because no one bothers us here. It’s our place. No one knows and no one else comes here.”

“Well, except Bob,” Grey shrugged.

“Bob?” Daniel was still busy looking around, taking it all in.

“He’s the security guard, but somehow also the janitor. He caught us skating here. At first he was mad and wanted to call the cops. But it turned out he used to skate when he’d been younger. He’s okay. He won’t rat us out. He even opened one of the bathrooms for us. There’s still running water. He comes in here to check on things every day, but we hardly ever meet him,” Grey said.

As if on cue – or as if to prove he was not a figment of Grey’s imagination – the sound of heavy footfalls on the escalator steps caused them to fall silent.

Daniel had all kinds of questions tumbling through his head. Why didn’t this guy report them to his bosses or call the police? What was his agenda? Could he be trusted? Was he a creep?

He felt an uncomfortable tingle in his spine when the footsteps got closer.

The man rounding the corner, wearing the uniform of the security company he worked for, carried a toolbox and saluted the kids with his free hand. Daniel’s very first thought was how Bob reminded him of General Hammond. Same stature, same eye color and while he still had all his hair – short cropped and steel gray – he somehow resembled Hammond in the way he smiled as soon as he saw them.

“Hi, Bob!” Tara gave him a wave. Ron and Grey returned the salute.

“Enjoying your summer?” Bob put the heavy tool box down and wiped his brow. “It’s a tropical downpour out there, but it still isn’t cooling down. Nuts.” He turned his attention to Daniel. “Who are you?”

“That’s Daniel,” Grey introduced him. “He’s new.”

Bob looked Daniel up and down and frowned. “Do your parents know you’re here?”

“You know we can’t tell our parents we’re here,” Tara said. “They wouldn’t allow it.”

Bob didn’t reply to that. Instead he kept looking at Daniel. “How old are you, son?”

“Thirteen,” he said, not without a hint of defiance as he very well knew.

“We’ll babysit him, no worries,” Ron threw in and Daniel wanted to go over there and smack him. Hard.

“You kids are well aware I’m responsible. If something happens to either of you, I’m going to be sued by your parents and my company.” Bob’s eyes bore into Ron’s. “You guys are all pros on your boards and old enough to hopefully be trusted not to get into too much trouble. But what about him?” He turned back to Daniel. “I’m not your dad so I can’t tell you what to do, but you better watch yourself if you want to skate here. I don’t want any vandalism going on. That includes spraying,” Bob send another glare in Ron’s direction, “breaking and entering any of the closed shops, playing out at the balcony or trying to open the elevators and climbing into the shafts. You got that?”

“I have no intention of doing any of that,” Daniel said. And because he was a polite boy, he added, “sir.”

“What’s your name?”

“Daniel Jackson O’Neill. Do you work for the security company and for the mall owners?” He pointed at the tool box.

“Yep. Best way to work two jobs is working them at the same place.”

Daniel spotted a Glock secured at the man’s belt. “You’re armed,” he observed. It meant Bob had had proper training and it also meant he might be a retired cop or even military.

“I have several other properties to make my rounds on. Some are remote and others are in neighborhoods much worse than this one. This is one of the better places, actually.”

“Do you allow kids to hang out in your other properties, too?” Daniel asked.

Bob shook his head. “There’s a blind-eye-deal with a couple of homeless cats at some of them, but that’s about it. Listen up...” He hooked his hands behind his belt and waited until he had all their undivided attention before he continued. “I know you guys just want to be left alone and that’s fine by me. But from here on out I don’t want any new kids showing up. He can stay if he plays by the rules and you promise to look out for him, but that’s about it. I can’t have that. I’ve been doing you a favor by turning a blind eye, but if you keep bringing in new kids I can’t do that anymore, okay?”

“Yes, sir,” Grey said and everyone nodded their heads.

Bob crossed his arms and tilted his head. “So, Daniel Jackson O’Neill, let’s see how good you are.”

“What? Oh, okay.” Daniel picked up his board. “They say you can skate?”

“Used to, when I was young. Been a long while ago.” Bob smiled a bit wistfully. “The knees and the back ain’t up for it anymore.”

“Bob used to do competitions, just like Ron and Grey did when we were kids,” Tara explained, but Bob waved it off.

“I grew up in California and all we did was skate. And run away from the cops chasing us off wherever we showed up. We didn’t want to skate in the known venues because it was crowded everywhere there. We did a lot of street style so we sought out parks and parking lots and malls, but got in trouble all the time for trespassing,”

“Different times, same problem,” Grey muttered.

Daniel decided Bob was probably okay and stepped on his board, ready to show off a little. Ron hadn’t exaggerated when he had said the flooring was perfect. His wheels had good traction, his board rolled smoothly and soon he was doing kick flips and other simple tricks he knew he had down to a T.

The security guard watched him for a while, then gave him the thumb’s up and picked up the tool box. “I need to do some repairs up here so I’m on my way. You guys be careful.”

Once Bob was gone, Grey and Ron exchanged a long look and Tara jumped to her feet. “Okay, let’s do this.”

When the boys slowly stood and all of them stared at Daniel it dawned on him that something big was about to happen. They moved to stand in a circle, caught together in their own little cosmos, unfazed by the thunderstorm and the rain outside.

“Whenever we’re not at the Center, we’re here,” Ron said, his dark eyes piercingly set on Daniel. “This could be your place, too.” He stood and held out his right hand, palm up. There was a small silver band on his little finger and a pride bracelet around his bony wrist.

“You’re with us now, D.” Grey placed his own hand palm down over Ron’s. His hands looked softer, still more the hands of a boy than of a man, but his fingers were long and strong.

“If you want to be,” Tara cautioned. She looked at Daniel expectantly.

He licked his lips, caught somewhere between amusement and the foreshadowing of something earth shattering happening here. Now. In this moment. “Is this where you tell me you’ll put me six feet under if I tell anyone about this?”

“Yes,” Ron said, face straight.

“No.” Tara rolled her eyes. “Thanks for ruining the moment, Daniel.”

“Sorry, sorry, I… sorry.” He cleared his throat and held Ron’s gaze. “Okay, go on.”

“If you wanna be in you’re sworn to secrecy about this place. And you need to understand that we trust and rely on each other. Anything personal we talk about stays between us, always.” Ron sounded serious now, almost solemn.

Daniel took a deep breath and firmly placed his own hand over Grey’s. “I’m in.”

Thunder boomed above their heads and their faces were bathed in lightning when Tara closed both hands around theirs and squeezed them all together. “May there always be wind in our hair and a board under our feet and a road to skate on together.” She beamed at each of them, her eyes wide and her smile genuine and bright.

“Amen,” Ron snorted and pulled his hand away. “Let’s go skate.”

They picked up their boards and showed Daniel the lay of their land and where the best skating spots were.

And when the rain stopped and the clouds cleared up the sun came out again to reveal the true potential of this place with its huge endless walkways, the smooth floor, the benches and two wide steps leading into a rotund area with a lowered floor at the end of each hallway. Perfect for practicing flips

* * *

Big Daniel stretched out his long legs and leaned his head back against the cushion of the deck chair. The rain had stopped an hour ago and even though the deck furniture was still a little damp even after wiping it down with a towel, Daniel wanted to sit out here. They had been cooped up at Sam’s nursery with the dust all day so he had dragged the chair cushions outside and watched the last bits of red and orange sky slowly fade to darkness above the trees.

He had showered ten minutes ago and still seemed to feel dust in his hair. There was also a faint ringing sound in his ear from the floor work in Sam’s nursery. But at least they had finished it all today and now they were home where it was quiet and peaceful…

“Could you _please_ pick your soaked clothes off the floor and hang them up!”

“Was getting to that!”

“When? The dog already rolled in it and hauled your shirt onto the couch to suck on it!”

A door slammed. “Coming!”

“Well, it’s about time!” There was the running of feet and then Jack again. “Look at this mess.”

“I got wet on my way home...”

“Was it really necessary to go out in this kind of weather?”

“We were skate...”

“Skating. In the rain. Makes for some slippery skate experience.” There was a pause, then. “Where are you going? Your sneakers are dripping on the hallway floor… Thank you! Put them out on the deck to dry.”

“Really? I was going to put them in the oven… I’m going, I’m going!”

BD considered getting up to intervene, but decided he was too exhausted to get in the middle of this. The two of them were fine, it was just how it was sometimes.

LD came out, towel hanging loosely around his shoulders. He was wearing boxer shorts and his hair was still damp. He placed his soggy shoes on the deck’s banister to keep them save from the dog. “He’s in a mood,” he muttered in BD’s direction.

Daniel was well aware it would only take a reminder of the fact that Jack had been working on the nursery for hours while LD had had the luxury of enjoying his day, going his merry way, to send the kid on a little guilt trip.

But he didn’t want to initiate guilt trips so he just said, “I wouldn’t add fuel to that mood if I were you.”

LD slipped back inside and Daniel hoped he had heard him. Minutes went by without any back and forth shouting until he heard Jack’s still slightly irritated voice again. “Did you remember it’s your turn to cook tonight, Daniel?”

There was an answer coming from somewhere in the house Daniel couldn’t understand, but Jack’s response didn’t leave room for speculations. “Vegetable lasagne? Are you kidding?!” And after a pause. “Spinach?!”

Daniel couldn’t help but grin a little. Revenge was a dish best served cold they said.

Jack came out on the deck, beer in hand. He placed one in front of Daniel who took it with a nod of thanks. He was usually a wine person, but it was hot and humid from the rain and a cold beer seemed just about perfect right now.

“So help me if he keeps this up I’m gonna ground his ass to the house for the rest of the summer.” Jack fell into the other chair, then winced. “Oy, I’m too old for this home improvement crap.”

“Hey, he prepped dinner and remembered to do the laundry before he left.”

“Vegetable lasagne,” Jack moaned. “Spinach.”

“Pearly barley?”

“That was a choice of discipline. Be late and forget to cook – you have to live with my choice of dinner. He isn’t supposed to turn this into food wars. And what’s with having to go out in this kind of weather? Wouldn’t have hurt him if he had stayed home during that thunderstorm.”

“He wants to see his friends.” Daniel shrugged. “I’m sure he wasn’t actually anywhere outside during the thunder and lightning. He got soaked on his way home, it won’t kill him.”

Jack scowled and fiddled with the label of his bottle. “He’s barley home anymore on the weekends. He’d go to see those kids every damn day of the week if he could,” he finally muttered.

“You fixed his leg,” Daniel reminded him with a smile.

“Ye-ah. I’m kinda beginning to wish I hadn’t.” They clinked their bottles and drank.

“You don’t mean that.”

Jack gave him a sour look, but then sighed. “No, I don’t.” He shook his head. “Two days ago Siler caught him skating in the hallways of the SGC. He claimed he was faster getting from his office to the archeological lab that way.”

“Did he knock Siler over?” Daniel could just picture it. Siler had a remarkable talent for being in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

“Almost.” Jack tried to hide his snort by taking a sip of his beer, but Daniel heard it anyway. “I don’t think he meant to tell me. We were talking about sports and he mentioned he’d seen Daniel on his board and thought it was cool.”

“How did he manage to bring his board in without us noticing?”

“Apparently it fits into his backpack.”

“Go figure.”

LD chose that moment to come out and put plates on the table. “Dinner’s ready.”

Jack sniffed and frowned. “That smells amazingly good for vegetable lasagne.”

The kid rolled his eyes. “Those are your meatballs, Jack. Unlike you I’m not a mean person.”

“Meatballs, you say?” Jack patted his belly. “Is that a peace offering? Because my mom makes a mean fish pie and I’m sure she’d be happy to give me the recipe.”

“Peace offering,” LD said quickly and Daniel mouthed, “_Fish pie_?” at Jack who just grinned.

“He’s bluffing. He hates fish. That’s why he does all his fishing at that fishless pond of his,” LD grumbled once Jack had gone inside to bring the food out.

“He used to fly fish at the river though. He’s got all those fly fishing hooks at the cabin. So, no food wars unless you want to eat fish pie a la Dorothy O’Neill.”

LD shuddered, nodded and went to help Jack with the food.

Peace was restored for now, dinner was excellent and much later, long after LD had retreated to his room and the dishes had been done, Jack and Daniel climbed up to the roof for a bit of stargazing.

“Maybe I should learn it after all,” Daniel mused lazily, trying to find a comfortable spot for his head on Jack’s left shoulder as they watched the night sky over Colorado Springs.

“What?”

“Skateboarding.”

“What?!” Jack’s shoulder bumped into the back of his head.

“Imagine how fast I could make it from my office to the lab while carrying piles of artifacts.”

“Are you nuts?”

Daniel grinned at the irritated whine and smacked his head back against the shoulder. “LD and I could race each other and see who’s able to keep a pile of tablets on his head the longest.”

“Sure, why don’t we have a competition in the gate room, using the ramp.”

“Jump through the gate contest.” Daniel chuckled, then sat up abruptly, rubbing the back of his head. “Ow! For someone who keeps complaining he gained weight you have pretty boney shoulders.” He caught something flinty in Jack’s eyes and sobered. “You _are_ worried.”

“Just cautious.”

“You want him to be out there. You’ve been encouraging him. As you should.”

“He took a giant leap this year, I don’t want to stifle that,” Jack said grudgingly. “That doesn’t mean he’s entitled to come and go whenever he wants or to do whatever pleases him.”

“No of course not and I agree he’s walking a fine line there right now, but I’m sure we can handle that. As you said it’s all about...”

“...balance, yep. And when the balance gets outta balance, guess who has to be the mean parent here trying to get him back on track.”

“Look, if you’re really concerned things might get out of hand, just talk to him. Tell him you’re worried...”

Jack blew out a breath. “I’m torn. For the first time since he’s a kid he’s really living it. Without all the hang ups. At least from time to time.”

“Exactly. Once summer is over the others will be back to school and life goes back to normal,” Daniel reassured his partner. “Let him have this. It probably won’t last forever.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Jack muttered.

“Hey, I can be the mean parent if that makes you feel better. I can be SO mean, he’s going to wish you’d be dealing with him instead,” Daniel said in a dark threatening tone.

Jack stared at him with raised eyebrows, then wrapped one arm around his neck and pulled him down, capturing his mouth in a claiming kiss.

  



	4. August   IV

**August**

**IV**

It had been sweltering hot in July and it didn’t bother to cool down at the beginning of August. The only two really cool places Daniel could think of in this summer of 2008 were the mountain and Spring Mall. Both were places he loved and if he could have had it his way he would go straight to the mall from the mountain every day instead of having to go home where – even with the a/c on – it always seemed to be warm and muggy.

Jack suspected the air conditioning didn’t work properly and had called someone to take a look at it, but apparently there were many broken air conditions in the Springs this summer so they were still waiting for the a/c guy to show up.

There was no running a/c at Spring Mall of course, but it’s thick walls kept most of the heat outside especially in the more secluded areas with no windows.

Daniel even preferred the mall over his tree house right now because his little sanctuary was like an oven these days and spending time up there was no fun at all.

Tonight there was a light breeze bringing a bit of relief as they gathered around the table on the deck for dinner. Jack was grilling steaks and BD had whipped up his famous potato salad.

Flyboy dozed on his cool mat by the door. He wasn’t fond of the heat either.

It was Friday and Daniel’s thoughts were jumping back and forth between a new off world recruit training scenario he and Teal’c were working on, and tomorrow. Tomorrow he, Grey, Ron and Tara were going to build a new obstacle course for Daniel’s skate training. They had discovered a leftover stack of children’s furniture in one of the vandalized stores on the ground level. Small chairs and tables, tiny shelves and foot stools were perfect for practicing jumps and flips and Daniel loved any new challenge to hone his skills.

“So, how’s the new training class coming along?” BD asked once Jack had put steaks on their plates and sat down.

“There’s going to be a high rope course they have to cross and we have those new little drones that look like the energy fireflies from M4C-862. The mission will be to capture some of them, which will trigger the attack of the other drones. The drones are programmed to stop attacking once their buddies are set free again,” Daniel explained.

“I like it. I wish a certain someone had gone through that kind of training all those years ago,” BD said with a smirk. “It would have lowered the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ attitude a bar or two.”

“Times were different back then. We had literally no idea what we were dealing with when we first started going out there. You,” Jack pointed his fork at BD, then at Daniel, “asked all the questions. T and I were the ones having your back and Carter came up with the grand escape plans. The kids we’re sending out there today have way more intel on all the basics.”

“Hear hear.” BD raised his bottle.

“But it’s true,” Daniel said. “Once they were cleared all of the new recruits this year got to watch the Stargate 101 footage BD and I set up. They were well prepared even before we sent them to the alpha site for their first training class.”

The SGC training program had been in progress for several years now and was slowly developing further. And while there was a constant struggle with the IOA because the program cost a lot of money, it had already lowered the death rate of new SG team members going through the gate significantly. Daniel was proud to contribute to it as an adviser.

“It’s a good program. But now the weekend is here, no crisis ahead at the mountain, we’re all alive and well... So, let’s talk about fun things to do,” Jack said, rubbing his hands. “It’s been way too long since we took a trip to the mountains. What do you say we pack up the dog tomorrow, go on a hike, have a picnic? We could take our sleeping bags and camp out in the wilderness, have some non-life-threatening adventure time.”

The Daniels exchanged a look. “Yay,” BD said brightly, “all the mosquitoes and the dust and sweat.”

“But,” Jack raised a finger, “it’s cooler up in the mountains.”

“Well, there’s that.”

“And we could stop at a lake, go for a swim,” Jack coaxed. “C’mon. We’ll take tons of bug spray.”

BD smiled. “Yeah. Why not. I could take books...”

Up came Jack’s finger again. “One!”

“Just one book,” BD promised.

Then both their eyes turned to Daniel.

Daniel, who used to love taking hikes in the mountains with his family, pursed his lips and pushed the leftover of his steak around his plate. “Um, I, well, actually, I was going to…”

And just like that the mood switched. Daniel saw it coming when Jack’s face changed from enthusiastic to annoyed in a heartbeat.

“Aht! Let me take an educated guess. Skating. You were going to go skating tomorrow.” The sarcastic remark came with the inevitable eye roll.

Daniel wasn’t sure if it was the eye roll or the biting tone that made him reply in the same way. “Yes, I’m going skating tomorrow, if you don’t mind,” he sniped. “I’m learning new tricks and I want to stay in the flow.”

“You’ve been staying in the flow for weeks now. Months even,” Jack sniped right back.

“I happen to like skating.”

“No, really? Could’ve fooled me.”

BD sighed and put down his fork and knife. “Guys… maybe we can find a compromise here? Daniel? Could you switch your skate plans to Sunday afternoon?”

“I can’t just make everyone change their plans because Jack gets it into his head today to go to the mountains tomorrow.”

“Please forgive me for trying to find a way for us to escape the heat!”

“If you’d come up with this a couple days earlier...”

“You’d still tell me you’d rather go skating.”

“No, I wouldn’t.”

“Sure you would.” Jack grabbed his beer and went over to the grill to turn the sausages.

Daniel stared at Jack’s back and tried not to blush, but of course that never worked. Because Jack had probably been right. He wanted to go skateboarding either way. And what was wrong with that? He had finally found something he loved to do. Something he could do outside the mountain, something that belonged just to him. And he wanted to excel at it. But even more than that he just loved doing it.

But he didn’t want to hurt Jack’s or BD’s feeling and it felt so wrong and not wanting to go with them seemed weird. He had always enjoyed doing things with them.

“I could… ask,” he blurted out. “If we can meet on Sunday instead.”

Jack didn’t turn around. “Whatever.”

“Jack.” BD ground out.

Daniel blew out a breath. “What? Do you want me to call them or not?”

Jack returned with a plate full of sausages he put on the table. “Nope. It’s okay. Go ahead, go skating.”

“Are you sure?” Daniel _knew_ it wasn’t okay. Jack’s words stood in total contrast to his now blank face and narrowed eyes. But he was going to take it. Because he really wanted to go and see his friends. And skate.

He hadn’t been to the center at all this week because they had spent a lot of time over at Sam’s house again painting the nursery. Pete had been ordered to cover for a colleague in Boulder and was working double shifts now, being on duty in Colorado Springs the first half of the day and then he headed to Boulder for the afternoon and evening shift. So they had jumped in to help out and now all the furniture was set up and everything was in its place.

Jack forced out a wry grin, “Sure. Have fun.”

“Cool.” The victory was his. And for the moment he could ignore that it didn’t feel like one at all. In an attempt to mend some fences he said, “Hey, we can go to the mountains another time, right?”

Jack opened his beer and took a swig.

BD picked a sausage from the plate and continued eating.

Great. So much for not wanting to hurt their feelings. Daniel sighed. Maybe he should tell Tara he wasn’t going to make it tomorrow and just be done with it. A day up in the mountains sounded like fun. Then again if Jack was in a mood like this...

“Do other kids actually get skate time at your Rainbow Center? Seems your gang hogs that area all the time,” Jack muttered after a while.

Daniel almost choked on the piece of potato he had just popped into his mouth. He coughed and quickly washed it down with his Doctor Pepper.

“There are two skate areas now so I guess there’s enough space,” BD said.

Daniel nodded and pretended to focus on his food while he suddenly wished the floor would open and swallow him whole.

_I need to tell them,_ he thought slightly bewildered._ I can’t start outright lying to them about where we skate._

But that was easier said that than done. He had promised not to tell anyone. For the last couple of weeks whenever he had gone to Spring Mall he had just said he was going skateboarding with his friends and Jack and BD had assumed they were doing it at the center. No one had brought up the ‘where’ simply because until last month that had always been where he had gone to skate. And now that he thought about it, Daniel realized how lucky he had been because Jack usually always wanted to know where he went.

Today, BD had – unknowingly – saved him. But Daniel knew he had to come up with a solution for this dilemma at some point. Soon.

Even though he wasn’t sure what kind of solution he was aiming for. He had made a promise. And he intended to keep it. If Jack or BD really outright asked him where he went he wouldn’t be able to tell them. As long as everyone just assumed he continued to go to the center he would be uncomfortable about it, but maybe he could live with that.

They finished dinner and Daniel couldn’t help but put some extra effort in his KP duties tonight. Once he had loaded and started the dishwasher he wiped the counters and even offered to scrub the grill grate.

Jack handed him the steel brush. “Knock yerself out. We’re walking the dog.”

“I guess I deserve that,” Daniel muttered, staring at the fat crusted grate.

* * *

Flyboy trudged down the walkway listlessly as they turned the corner. The ongoing heat seemed to have taken all the playful perkiness out of him. At least humidity wasn’t an issue. Except for immediately after it had rained, the Colorado climate was rather dry. But even BD, who preferred heat over cold on any given day, was starting to long for lower temperatures.

He felt the heat of the pavement through the soles of his sneakers. “We should take the dog to the mountains tomorrow,” he said. “He loves to swim and this,” he tapped the ground with the tip of his shoe, “is way too hot to let him walk on for long.”

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Jack replied absently.

They turned another corner and arrived at Flyboy’s favorite place, a fallow undeveloped property. Since it was late and no one else was on the street, Jack let him off his leash and they watched him venture into the uncut grass to find a good spot.

“He would have called his friends to change plans, you know,” BD said after a moment of heavy silence.

“I’m not _ordering_ him to spend time with us,” was the curt reply. “He either wants to go with us or he doesn’t.”

“Okay, that’s good. But then don’t act like a sullen brat when he doesn’t.”

“I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did. He said he’d postpone and you pushed him away.”

“Daniel, he didn’t want to postpone. And the last thing I want is to be stuck on a mountain with a sulking brat who’d rather spend his time skating even at a 100 degrees.”

“The point is he was willing to make the effort and I bet he would have had fun once he’d come along.”

“Well, it’s his choice,” Jack snapped.

“And aren’t you supposed to be the _adult_ in this?”

Jack stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “He wants to go skating, I let him. Isn’t that exactly what I’m supposed to do? Support him in this? What?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what you’re supposed to do. And isn’t that what you actually want for him? You said so on numerous occasions.”

Jack scrubbed a weary hand through his hair. “Yes. It is.”

“But? He’s been on time and he’s doing his his chores. No more slips these last couple of weeks.”

Jack shrugged. “But, I don’t know. Don’tcha think he’s a little obsessed when it comes to the skating thing? And the longer he’s at it the worse it seems to get.”

“He’s… focused.”

Jack snorted. “Ye-ah.”

“He’s still on the learning curve and you know what it can be like, learning something new, loving what we do, we get...”

“Obsessed.”

Daniel pursed his lips. “Well… maybe. A little. My point is that he really found something that sets him free somehow.” Daniel frowned. “Remember when we talked about how it’s so very different from what I like to do. Maybe that’s exactly it.”

Jack’s eyebrow took an upward turn. “What?”

“He’s found something that separates him from me. I would never even think of picking skateboarding as a hobby. Actually, that’s more your thing. Just like the rock climbing he did for a while.” Daniel couldn’t help but smile. “That’s your impact on him, Jack. You’ve raised him and he’s picking up some of what you’ve been trying to pass along. I bet he isn’t even aware of that.”

Jack eyed him a bit incredulously. “The only thing I ever insisted him doing were the training sessions with Teal’c. For his own safety.”

“You and Teal’c encouraged him and helped him to get comfortable in his new body and test his physical boundaries.”

“He brought in a lot of his training experiences from when he’d been big.”

“Yes, but you nurtured those experiences, pushed him just enough to get him moving. And you never slapped him down when he struggled. Gaining that confidence made him thrive.” Daniel had no illusions about the fact that a lot of his own dislike for sports and physical activities originated into being bullied at school, from kids and teachers alike, for not being good at it. He had regained some of his own confidence from his work outs at the SGC, but it had always been more of a chore than something he would chose to do.

Little Daniel had broken that cycle, too, as well as some others.

Jack gave him a smug smile. “Ya think?”

“Yep. Look, he’s experimenting. He’s trying to figure out how and where he fits in and what defines him.”

“Becoming a profi skateboarder,” Jack deadpanned and Daniel elbowed him.

“Just give him some space.”

“I _am_ giving him space. He’s out on his own most of the time every weekend,” Jack pointed out, getting a bit edgy again.

“Okay, let me rephrase it. Give him space without making him feel bad about needing that space?”

Jack whistled for the dog, put him back on the leash and they walked home.

“I don’t want him to feel bad,” he said finally, sounding unusually defeated.

“I know.” He had an inkling about what the real issue was here, but for now he wouldn’t touch that with a ten foot pole. Maybe all Jack needed was time to adjust.

* * *

LD had taken a shower after he had won the fight against the grill grate grease. Now he was on his bed, dressed only in his boxer shorts and a sleeveless top, reading in a tome about Mayan history and scribbling in his notebook.

He had left his door open to allow the dog to come and go freely.

And maybe, just maybe, he had left his door open as an invitation.

He recognized the short rap of knuckles on his door frame without looking up from his book. “Gimme a second, Jack.” He quickly finished his paragraph and wrote another quick sentence in his journal, then closed the book and sat up. “Do you think the air conditioning will be fixed before summer is over?”

“Hope springs eternal, eh?” Jack leaned against the door frame. “You did a good job on the grill.”

“Thanks.”

“Hey, Daniel and I are taking the dog to Qail Lake tomorrow. You know how much he loves that big lake and all the ducks and squirrels and bunnies up there.” After a pause he added nonchalantly, “You’re welcome to join us.”

Daniel felt the tension creep back up his spine. “Um, thank you. I’d love to, but...” he trailed off, waiting for the rebuke or a snide remark, but to his surprise Jack just nodded.

“Have fun.”

“I will, thanks.” He relaxed and smiled.

“There’s ice cream. If we’re fast we might actually get some before Daniel has gobbled it all down.” Jack retreated with a wink and after considering going back to his book for a split second, Daniel followed him.

  


Jack and BD left early the next day, but it was already warm when they loaded their backpacks, a blanket and the excited dog into the truck. Daniel watched them leave and then ran back into the house to have breakfast.

He was looking forward to seeing his friends at Spring Mall without having to worry about curfews or whether or not it was his turn to fix dinner. He didn’t have to be home to walk the dog and he knew Jack and BD would stay out all day.

It was perfect.

He raided the fridge, put together a small mountain of sandwiches for all of them and put them in a box. They had snacks at Spring Mall, but he needed at least something ‘real’ to eat now and then.

He was about to leave when Tara texted him, asking if he could bring drinks. They were running out of Coke. Daniel confirmed and took two large bottles from the fridge.

He turned the alarm system on, locked the house and sent a quick text to Jack letting him now he was heading out ‘to skate’ before he carried his provisions into the garage where his bike was. Again he crossed his fingers Jack wouldn’t ask him ‘where’. But all he got back was a ‘have fun’ and a thumb’s up emoji.

Neatly tucked into the basket on his bicycle rack were his helmet and pads. After trying to squeeze the sandwich box and the two bottles of Coke in there without success he shrugged, pulled helmet and pads out of the basket and stuffed them into one of the crammed shelves.

He didn’t need that stuff anyway. Not anymore.

He had never really worn the knee and elbow pads beyond the first week when he had started practicing - except for his birthday last month at the skate park.

But he had always worn his helmet despite the fact that it was uncomfortable and hot. The helmet was mandatory at the Rainbow Center and public skate parks so there hadn’t been much of a choice.

But he’d considered himself good enough to skate without the helmet for a while now and at Spring Mall no one cared whether he wore it or not. The only reason he kept hauling his protective gear around with him on his bike was to avoid getting in trouble with the mother hen at home. It had been the same with riding his bike. There had been weeks of endless discussions and fights about whether or not Daniel was allowed to ride his bike without a helmet. Colorado law didn’t dictate helmets on bikes, Jack did.

They had finally settled for an extremely lightweight helmet. If he’d be allowed to wear the very same helmet for skating it would have been okay, but the Rainbow Center guidelines required different helmets for skating, more secure ones.

But now the mother hen had left the building and there was no reason to take unnecessary ballast with him or wear any helmets at all.

When he arrived at the mall, drenched in sweat and in bad need of something cold to drink, the others were already upstairs in the seating area, engrossed in a lively discussion about the annual Rainbow Center summer party.

“A competition,” Ron shouted. “We could win that hands down! But not without you!”

“We are the best of the best skaters they have. We have to do this,” Tara said at the same time. “Only two other teams have signed up for this, it’s gonna be a walk in the park!”

“It’s not my fault they make me go with them,” Grey was whining when Daniel joined them.

“Can’t you just stay home?” Ron whined back. “Seriously, dude, grandparents?”

“No, I can’t just stay home, Mister Dickhead. My parents are going to disinherit me if I refuse to go. And I happen to like my grandparents. Only because your grandparents don’t want anything to do with you doesn’t mean we all have broken families.”

“Bullshit,” Ron snapped.

“Grey, stop it,” Tara groaned.

Daniel squeezed through between Ron and Grey, placed the Coke and the sandwich box on the ground and settled in his own chair. “What’s goin’ on?”

Ron grabbed one of the Coke bottles, opened it and downed at least a quarter of it.

Grey stared down at his feet stuck in new black Vans. “The summer party.” Turning to Ron he muttered. “Sorry.”

Ron shrugged. “Don’t be. You’re right. They don’t want to be seen with the queer boy. Their loss.”

“It is. Their loss,” Grey confirmed grimly and gripped Ron’s bony shoulder. “Peace.”

Ron fluttered his eyelashes at the other boy. “Love ya. Stay in town?”

Grey snorted and shook his head.

“There’s a skateboarding competition this year,” Tara explained to Daniel. “Remember how we did that skate show last year? The Center guys liked it and this year they want it to be a competition. Two other teams have signed up.”

Daniel remembered last year’s summer party.

Tara, Ron and Grey had attracted a lot of attention with their show. Kids and adults alike had gathered at the skate area and cheered them on. It had been _the_ event at the party, everyone had talked about it. They had worn colorful gay pride costumes and choreographed a great routine, something between acrobatic and skateboarding.

Seeing them skate together at that party had ignited the wish to learn how to become that good. Tara had started to teach him a little about skating after she had given him her old skateboard for his 12th birthday and they had practiced on an off, but not regularly. Back then Earth had still been at war with the Ori and even though their position in that war had already changed for the better, Daniel’s heart and head hadn’t been ready to truly immerse in the lifestyle of skating until the winter.

And winter wasn’t a particularly great time to take up skateboarding when the skate area was outside. So it had been spring before he had really gotten into it. But the wish had been there for much longer.

“Well, I wanted to kick these guys’ butts because we really need to start practicing. The party is Laborday weekend, so not even four weeks from now. And now he,” Tara pointed an accusing finger at Grey, “tells us he’ll be gone to his grandparents over laborday.”

“It’s not my fault,” Grey blurted out, blushing angrily. He snatched the Coke bottle from Ron and took a sip, then his pale blue eyes settled on Daniel. “You cover for me.”

Ron rolled his eyes.”Seriously? What is this? Dirty Dancing? Are we supposed to call him ‘Baby’ now?”

“You know Dirty Dancing?” Daniel was momentarily distracted by that information.

“My mom’s totally into it, watches it on pay TV all the time,” Ron said. “Swayze’s a pretty hot dude. Was. Back then.”

“Who?” Tara blinked.

“Dirty Dancing guy.”

“Listen – Daniel is good enough,” Grey pointed out, “and if you keep it a little less complicated, he’ll ace it.”

“We need to top last year’s performance,” Ron said.

“Why? If we do what we did last year we’ve already won this.”

“It won’t fly if we don’t top it.”

Grey shook his head. “That’s bull and you know it. You always want to top yourself just because you need to always be better, faster, bolder than you were yesterday, that’s it. Here’s news for you – not everything is about you.”

Ron’s mouth turned into a hard, thin line. He got up and kicked the second Coke bottle out of the way as he left.

“Roooon,” Tara called after him.

“Leave him, Tink.” Grey waved it off. “He’ll be back.”

“Drama queen,” Tara muttered. And then turned bright green eyes on Daniel who wanted nothing more than to follow Ron to wherever he had just retreated. “Daniel!”

“Uh...”

“Are you going anywhere on Laborday weekend?” she asked sweetly.

It would have been so easy to lie and say yes, they had plans to spend the weekend in Minnesota at the cabin. Instead he heard himself say, “No, not really We’re all sticking around town in case Sam’s has her baby early.”

“Perfect!” She clapped her hands and Daniel got a glimpse of blue colored nails. “You’re in then, D.”

“Uh, Tara, wait… I can’t. I won’t. I really don’t.” The last thing he wanted was trying to do dance moves on a skateboard or complicated jumps with a crowd of people watching. He didn’t want to wear rainbow colored glittery costumes either. He hated being the center of attention.

“Oh, come on, you _have_ to do it,” Grey coaxed. “You’ll be great.”

“I’ll screw up.”

“No, you won’t. You have learned so so much, you’re great,” Tara pointed out.

“Why can’t you and Ron do it? Just the two of you? You’ll shine together, you don’t need me.” Daniel wished Ron would return and jump onto the idea of him and Tara being a Duo in this. But Ron had gone to skate somewhere in the hallways. Daniel could hear the rumble of his wheels on the ground.

“Because I want us to do some synchronized skateboarding with figures and it looks more spectacular if we do it as a trio.”

“And you expect us to learn that in under four weeks.” Daniel flipped her the bird. “I can’t be here every day during the week. How’s that supposed to work? And I’m not wearing anything glittery.”

Tara pouted. “No glitter?”

“No glitter. No rainbows.”

“Oh shoot.” She sighed. “Okay, no glitter, no rainbows. I promise.”

“Thank you,” Daniel said, then groaned when he realized he had just signed himself up to this. Slapping both hands over his face, he fell backwards into his seat. “Oh nooo no no… I didn’t just agree to this.”

But he had. And he wasn’t getting out of it now.

The next couple of hours were spent working out choreography and once he was done sulking, Ron joined them and contributed many snarky and useless remarks as well as some – according to Tara – brilliant ideas.

They squabbled over the choice of music, over the moves, the tricks and the costumes. Daniel felt like being stuck in a briefing at work, and the longer they discussed, argued and developed ideas only to dismiss them a moment later, the more he wished he had gone to the lake with Jack and BD.

He pulled out his phone and sent them a text message, asking what they were up to. He had to do his required check in anyway. Jack was kind of strict about that. As annoying as having to send those regular ‘I’m still alive and where I’m supposed to be’ messages usually was, today it was a welcomed distraction. Jack replied with a picture of Flyboy in the water, a huge stick in his muzzle.

At least someone was a happy camper today.

Ron, in his function as a diva, wanted them to do all the things. Synchronized skating, figure skating, dance skateboarding. After endlessly going back and forth they finally settled on synchronized and dance with just one or two figures thrown in. Ron opted for them dying their hair and getting painted-on tattoos...

Daniel would never have admitted this to anyone, but at some point he wished someone would just be in charge, put his foot down, say how it was going to happen and be done with it. The very thing he had so often fought against in his years on SG-1.

He gazed wistfully at their skateboards scattered all over the ground. He had wanted to spend the day practicing, maybe learning new things, not sitting around planning a choreo.

Jack and BD had probably joined the dog in the water by now. Flyboy loved the lake and he loved it even more when his humans went in there with him. They would goof around, have a picnic…

While Daniel was stuck at a deserted mall with three crazy kids talking about dressing up like ABBA at the…

_What, wait…_

“I said no glitter,” Daniel groused. “I know the seventies are big in fashion again. But I will NOT wear any ABBA related costumes.”

“But they are so cool… My mom used to be a big fan. I’m sure she would help me sew.” Tara nibbled on the pen she was taking notes with.

Daniel sighed. Then sat up straight. He’d had enough. “Let’s figure out the choreography first. Then we can talk about costumes. Practicing is more important than appearance. And I need to practice a LOT.”

“He’s right.” Ron hopped to his feet and grabbed his board. “Well, almost. I think appearance is key. But he needs to practice his butt off or he’ll make fools out of us when he screws up. And I’m going to have a meltdown if he embarrasses us in front of everyone.”

And on they went, back to the drawing board of choreography. Time was of an essence after all. It wasn’t until they had eaten all the sandwiches and scribbled on countless of paper sheets with lists of tricks and the order of what to do when Daniel told them point blank he was tired and needed to move, so they picked up their boards and Tara showed him how to do dance skateboarding as Grery’s portable CD player delivered the music, some electro pop, fast and loud, featuring a female singer with a high pitched voice.

He tried to mirror Tara’s feet doing those fast little jumps on her rolling board, the little turns and twists, the tapping and hops – not with the board, but while the board was just rolling underneath her. It was a very different technique. It was like dancing on a tiny moving floor that was only 7 inches wide and 10,5 inches long.

By the time he was on his way home, his feet and legs hurt and his head was throbbing from the constant onslaught of music with its vibrating basses and high electric synthie sounds.

He put his bike away, went into the empty house and took a Tylenol and a shower.

The house was very quiet when Daniel settled on the couch with a small jar of cookie dough Ben and Jerry’s and the TV remote in his hand, trying to decide if he wanted to watch something or just sit here.

He checked his phone for messages. None.

It was really very quiet. Just an hour ago he had longed for just this. Solitude.

Now he caught himself wondering if Jack and BD were on their way home yet. He finished his ice cream and went into the kitchen. Maybe they’d be hungry when they got home.

He texted Jack, asking if they wanted dinner. Then without waiting for an answer he started slicing tomatoes, washed and cut iceberg lettuce, prepared bell peppers, cut herbs, fixed some French dressing and finally put the finished salad into the fridge.

Working around the kitchen always had a calming effect on him. He loved the smell of herbs or baked bread or anything he cooked. Loved the task of measuring, slicing, cutting, meshing and trying out new recipes.

When he checked his phone again, it said, _‘we’re starving, there’re burger__s_ _in the freezer__, we’ll be there in twenty’_

Burger patties were frying in the pan, the buns had been sliced and a jar of pickles was open on the table when Daniel heard the front door open and suddenly everyone was home and the dog almost knocked him off his feet, Jack went outside to hang up towels and swimming trunks and BD dumped one of their backpacks on the kitchen counter.

“That smells delicious,” he sighed and popped a pickle into his mouth. “Is there time for a shower? I’m all sand, dirt and lake water Chanel. Actually, I’m going to shower the dog first.”

“Yeah, take a shower, I don’t want you to sit next to me smelling like Nem,” Daniel joked and turned the patties.

He had just filled the dog’s bowl when Jack stuck his head through the open door. “Where’s Daniel?”

“Showering with the dog. If you want to join them – I can keep the patties warm for a while longer.” Daniel grinned.

“I’ll wait til the dog is done, thank you,” Jack groused, but left in the general direction of the bathroom anyway.

They were back like clockwork when everything was ready, both clean with damp hair and matching smiles, talking about their day. The dog, the fish, the lake, the route they had taken, the deer they had seen… and Daniel was happy for them.

And wished he had gone with them.

They looked so recharged. Tired and a little sunburned on the noses, but relaxed and content. Why he had foregone a day at the lake with them to sit around at Spring Mall was suddenly beyond him.

But when Jack asked how his day had been he still said, “Great,” and told them about the competition.

“Oy, lemme guess, that means more practicing,” Jack teased. “Do you need some leave, maybe?”

“Very funny, Jack. I don’t even know if I want to do it.”

“If you don’t wanna do it, don’t.”

“But I already said yes,” Daniel sighed.

“Oh, that’s no problem. Just tell them I’m not allowing you to do it.”

“And what would be the reason for you not to allow me to do it?”

“Because?”

BD spiked a pickle with his fork and shoved it into Jack’s mouth. “Don’t listen to him. Of course you can do it. You’ll be great.”

LD sighed. “I kinda like Jack’s idea.”

Jack shook his head. “I’m pretty sure you don’t mind the extra practicing. And Daniel’s right. You’ll be great.”

“It means I have to practice during the week, too. At least once or twice. There’s a lot I need to learn because this is very different from what I’ve done so far.” He eyed Jack to assess his reaction.

Jack exchanged a look with BD and then just said, “Well, you’re off early Wednesdays and Fridays anyway, so that makes two more days where you could practice.”

Josh, Daniel’s designated driver, already took him home twice a week when Daniel had to leave early. On Wednesdays he had his appointment with Doc Murphy and on Fridays he only worked half day because the mother hen had ordered less working hours for ‘civilians under the age of sixteen’. Meaning Little Daniel was getting a lot more time off than Big Daniel and Jack because the well meaning adults around him kept a close eye on his schedule.

“Yes, but Wednesdays are my shrink appointments.”

“But you’re already at the center then anyway since he moved his office there permanently this spring,” BD pointed out.

“I know, but I have to be home at 18:30 and my appointment is from 15:00 to 16:00, which means I only have two hours on Wednesdays.”

“I think we can extend your curfew to 19:30,” BD said.

Daniel’s eyes darted over to Jack, who took his time biting into his burger, chewing and swallowing before he added a rather curt, “Sharp.”

“Cool! I’m going to make sure I won’t be late! I know it’s a work night, but hey, it’s not like I’m going to bed that early anyway. And I’m ahead of my schedule all the time.”

When he felt Jack’s gaze linger on him for a moment. He looked up from his plate. “What?”

“Nothing.” Jack tilted his head. “Just wondering… are you bored at work lately?”

Daniel blinked. “Bored?” he echoed. “Why?” When Jack just continued to look at him thoughtfully he frowned. “Well, no. I mean, things are slow at the moment. Slow, as in nothing earth shattering is happening. At least nothing crisis related. And I’m glad.” And he was. He hadn’t been this relaxed going to the mountain in years. He tried to figure out what Jack was getting at. “Did… did anyone complain to you?” Had he been sloppy lately, had he let things slide? But he couldn’t remember any reason for anyone to talk to Jack about his work.

Of course there had been the incident with skateboarding down the hallways… but they had already addressed that. The general’s order had been; no more skateboarding on base.

Jack shook his head. “Oh, no, nothing like that, don’t worry.”

BD cleared his throat. “We were just talking about it today and wondering if you might need a bit more of a challenge. You’ve been solely doing translation work and research for a long time now. Well, and the set ups for the training teams of course.”

“What kind of challenge?” Daniel stared at Jack, then at BD and back at Jack.

The two of them exchanged another long look and finally Jack said, “There might be a long term project starting this fall, maybe winter. I can’t really go into any details just yet, but it requires archeological expertise.”

“Anthropological expertise, too,” BD threw in. “And the usual… attributing, classification of bones, artifacts.”

“Categorizing,” LD said.

“Pretty much, yeah,” BD replied with a shrug. “But it’d be lab work.”

“Sure, why not.” It wasn’t the most exciting work either, but it would be different from what he’d been doing ever since the Ori wars had ended. Translating a huge backlog of scrolls, tablets, glyphs on tapestries, books. And it had been a while since he’d done actual lab work with real artifacts or bones.

“Good. I’ll let you know once it’s cleared and a go,” Jack said.

Then Daniel asked to hear more about the dog, the deer and the mountains.

And maybe he was going to stay home tomorrow, take a day off and finish a book or two.

  



	5. V

**V**

“How much longer is this gonna take?” Daniel called from where he was sweeping together all the gunk and debris Jack kept pulling out of the roof gutter.

Jack looked down from where he was standing on the ladder. “It takes as long as it takes,” he said for about the third time in what felt like as many minutes.

“Shouldn’t you have done this in the spring?”

_Smart ass,_ Jack thought. “I’ve been busy in the spring.” He chucked more crap out of the gutter and Daniel who was staring up at him, frowning, was hit by part of it. “Sorry,” Jack called down, smirking.

“You’re not!”

“Nope.”

“Ja-ack...”

“I don’t hear the sound of sweeping, Daniel...”

There was a huff and then Jack heard the broom moving, accompanied by under-the-breath-mutterings, probably interesting swear words in different languages. Then, “Why can’t we do this when BD is here to help? I bet he’s feeling left out now!”

“Because I decided we are doing it today.” There were dead branches, more leaves and a sad deflated crumpled red balloon some kid had probably let go on their birthday party. Then he was done. “Daniel? When you’re done sweeping, get the hose, please.”

He looked down. No Daniel. The broom stood deserted against the wall. “Oh, for cryin’ out...” Jack made his way down the ladder. “Daniel!”

“WHAT?!” came the answering yell from the garage. “Sorry, gotta go!”

“Oh no, you don’t!” Jack caught up to him just as he pushed his bike out the door. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I told you I have to meet the guys at 11:00. I need to practice...”

Jack set his internal counter from ten on backwards. Sometimes he thought if he heard the words ‘practice’ or ‘skate’ one more time he was going to bust a gut. “You need to clean up the mess and help me with that hose.”

“Cleaning the gutter now was your idea...”

“And you said you’d help!”

“I told you I have to be gone by 10:30!”

“Daniel, so help me, if you get on that bike now there’s going to be a situation here…” Jack could see the wheels turning in that blond head, saw Daniel’s fingers curl around the handle of his bike for a moment. Then he kicked the stand down and stepped away from it.

“Smart choice. Get back to work.”

“For the record...”

“You hate me, yes, I know. Move.”

Daniel moved, picked up the broom, swiped everything onto a pile and got the shovel to put it all into the wheelbarrow. It wasn’t until he returned from the compost with the empty barrow that he ground out a half-assed, “Sorry.”

And it wasn’t until Jack had rinsed the gutter with the hose and Daniel had turned the water back off that Jack said, “Apology accepted.”

Daniel forced out a thin smile. “Is there anything else you want me to help you with?” His eyes darted in the general direction of where his bike stood by the garage door.

Jack was in just the right mood to ground the brat for the day and make him work. He had a couple of projects planned and he could use the help. Instead he asked, “How’s the practicing coming along?”

Daniel sighed. “I think I’m getting the hang of what we want to do, but it’s hard.” Then he cringed. “Look, I’m really sorry for… earlier…”

“You’re putting yourself under a lot of pressure. It’s a hobby, Daniel, not a life or death situation, no exam.” Jack knew very well his words would fall on deaf ears. But he had to say them anyway.

“I just don’t want to screw this up. They count on me.” He looked at his hands for a moment, then back at Jack. “Do… do you think it’s stupid? That it’s so important to me? The skating and the competition? I didn’t even want to do it. I hate being on center stage.”

Jack was pretty sure it wasn’t the competition that was so important to Daniel. He was trying to impress his new pals. Wanted to be fully accepted. He thought he had to prove himself somehow. And Jack knew that once Daniel had a goal to achieve he was like a dog with a bone – nothing would stop him.

Over the last two weeks the kid had barely been home at all. Wednesdays and Fridays, once he had left the mountain with Josh, they hadn’t seen him until dinner. And somehow he had managed to squirrel off this Monday and Thursday as well once they had gotten home. Jack had told him several times this week that he needed help with the gutter on the weekend and LD had gracefully agreed to be present and accounted for.

The balance was definitely starting to get out of balance here.

BD had said the kid was figuring out who he was and where he fit in. Jack wondered if Daniel was trying to deliberately throw off the shackles of who he had once been and become someone else. And that he was trying too fast and too hard.

_You fit __in with us_, Jack thought. _You’ve always __fit __in __best __with us and that’s not gonna change._

Jack had to remind himself that this was still a good thing.

Daniel going out there, finding new people, new goals. It was what they had all hoped for. A content Daniel, a Daniel who was comfortable in his own skin. Maybe he was on his way to getting there now.

Jack only hoped his kid didn’t burn his wings in the process.

“Not stupid,” he said in answer to Daniel’s question. “But try to give yourself a break from time to time.” He reached out to ruffle the blond head, but Daniel ducked away and raised his fist instead.

Okay. Fist bumps it was. “Go,” Jack said, “Have fun, don’t break a leg.”

* * *

Daniel was working on skating backwards in a wavy line when he heard familiar voices from downstairs. They were coming up the escalator now. He could hear Tara and Ron chattering over awful rap music from Grey’s portable CD Player.

When he had arrived and realized the others would be late, he had grabbed his board and started his training. He had enjoyed the peace and quiet which was only interrupted by the bird chatter and the sound of his wheels rolling across the floor and the low bumps whenever he hit the ground after a jump or kick. The sunlight floated in through the glass roof causing the dust particles Daniel whirled up with his board to sparkle like pixie dust.

Now that the others had arrived he rode over to the escalators to greet them. They went through the ritual of fist bumps and high fives, something Daniel found amusing and a bit childish, but at the same time had grown to like. And he had started to make Jack do it instead of the stupid hair ruffles, which was definitely an upside.

Ron pushed his fancy sunglasses with their green-blue polarizing lenses to the top of his head. His dark eyes were twinkling with mischief. “Daniel, dude, are you ready for a grand show of excellent skating?” He dropped his black and purple board to the ground and tapped it with the tip of his red Nike.

“Why? Are you going to do strip skating?” Daniel looked him up and down as if he expected the other guy to toss his clothes right here and now. Ron was dressed in tight silver pants and a black sleeveless muscle top with deep under arm cut outs.

Ron chuckled and stuck his tongue out at him lasciviously, revealing not only a row of perfect white teeth but also a tiny blue ring in the middle of his tongue. “That’s what you’d like, huh?”

“Nice piercing,” Daniel said, thinking that Ron’s parents had to be really chill if they had allowed him to do that. Then he remembered Tara telling him how she had forged the signature of her mother to get her eyebrow piercing.

Some things he probably didn’t want to know.

Ron grinned. “Wanna see my other piercings?”

“No one likes to see you strip skating,” Tara snorted, shaking out her incredible wild mane. She pulled a hairband from her wrist and gathered all that untamed flood of hair into a ponytail. Daniel noticed she had red and green streaks in it today and she was wearing her rainbow piercing.

Wow, he was hanging out with a gang of punks. The thought made him grin. He hadn’t looked at it this way before. He, who used to be geek boy cliché had friends with dyed hair and piercings. Hah.

“Absolutely no one wants that,” Grey agreed, but with his extremely fair skin he couldn’t hide its complexion change to a glowy red even if he tried, so he quickly retreated behind Ron and crouched down to tie his shoelaces.

“Tink, explain it to him,” Ron said, throwing up his hands. “Time to show him some magic.”

“We call it the escalator bomb,” Tara said, taking Daniel’s hand and pulling him over to the escalators. “We were here yesterday cleaning the ground floor and the ramp.” She pointed at the middle section of the escalators.

Daniel felt a pang of regret that he didn’t have the freedom to come and go every day as he pleased. Having long careless summer breaks sure had its advantages. He had never missed that before and he wouldn’t want to trade his work at the mountain for school, but not being on a schedule would be nice sometimes.

Then what she had just said sunk in and he flipped her the bird. “You’re not going down that escalator.”

“Oh, but we doooo,” Ron sing-songed. He bowed deeply as he rode a circle around Daniel and Tara. “The Incredibles on boards, that’s us.”

“What kind of drugs is he on?” Daniel asked.

“Watch and be impressed.” Ron was standing on the top of the ramp so fast, Daniel could barely blink.

“Tell me he won’t...” He seized Tara’s arm. “That’s suicide.”

“Wait for it. He’s doin’ it all the time.” Grey put a reassuring hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “Relax. It’s all good.”

“Oh, yeah? How come I never saw him do it before now?” Daniel’s stomach cramped into knots and everything in him wanted to knock the insane kid off the escalator. But he stood, rooted to the spot and watched the drama unfold.

“It takes lots of prepping. Cleaning downstairs and all that.” Grey shrugged.

“I’m the Flash,” Ron yelled, raising both arms high above his head in a victory pose. His black hair, which had grown a bit out of proportion during the summer, flattened on top of his head by the airflow as he raced down the steel top of the escalator.

Grey whistled long and loud on his fingers and went after Ron who had merely been a blur of black and silver and red going down.

Daniel watched them, frozen in place, the rushing sound of the board’s wheels on the steel ramp too loud in his ears. He thought he might even have felt a bit of the airflow on his face when Grey went after Ron.

There was not a single doubt in him that they would tumble down and crash on the ground. He could hear bones splinter, see blood spilling…

Instead what he actually heard was the crash of wheels hitting the ground, the jeering voices, the smacking of palms high-fiving each other. And then Tara kicked her board up and jumped onto the ramp. She went down like a disco queen in her rainbow-colored leggings and pink flowing summer shirt. She looked small, almost fragile, but Daniel saw the play of hard muscles in her arms and legs. She was flying off the ramp, and hit the ground with her typical grace, raced across the hallway and straight into Ron and Grey, who gabbed her by the arms, catching her and going down with her in a heap of arms and legs and laughter.

_Okay. That happened. Wow._

Before he knew it, Daniel was standing on top of the escalator, his board in hand.

_Damn, it’s steep_. And the steel looked smooth as glass in the glaring sunlight despite the scratch and wheel marks. _But if they can, so can I, right?_

“Daniel, don’t!” Tara came to her feet and started towards him. “Don’t!”

“Why not? You just did,” he yelled back.

“Hey, dude, it took us months to practice that,” Ron, who had the longer legs, was fast. He took the escalator steps in leaps and bounds. “Don’t be an idiot, ‘kay?”

“How’d you practice going down an escalator?” The tip of Daniel’s sneaker slid forward and he felt the descent. It was electrifying. The urge to haul himself down there on his board. He had fought against Goa’uld and flown in death gliders. This was a piece of cake.

Grey’s blond head showed up on the other escalator. “Listen to him, Daniel. Practice and you can do it, too. It’s no biggie, but you need to learn the technique.”

“We’ll show you,” Ron promised. “Right now. But don’t fucking do that! If you get hurt, we’ll be busted and won’t be able to come back here.”

“And we don’t want you to get hurt,” Tara snapped.

“Hey, personally I don’t really care if he breaks his neck.” Ron shrugged as he reached the top of the escalator now. But then he barked at Daniel, “Get off there!”

“Who put you in charge around here?” Daniel crouched and adjusted his board on the ramp.

Suddenly Ron was up there with him, blocking his way and then, totally taken by surprise, Daniel toppled over backwards and landed on his butt because Ron had pushed him hard and was now snarling at him. “You stupid son of a...”

Daniel didn’t think, he just reacted on reflexes, jumped to his feet, had Ron in a headlock, kicked his expensive Nike’s out from under him and together they went down, Daniel on top of him, pinning his wrists to the hard steel surface.

Ron’s dark eyes looked back at him, wide with shock, but also with something akin to laughter. “Wow, dude…”

Daniel slowly let go of the other boy’s wrists, came to his feet and after another awkward moment with Ron still on his back and staring up at him, Daniel held out a hand.

Ron took it and stood. “I was trying to save you from doing something totally dumb,” he said, a bit out of breath. “But what the hell… you wanna go down there? Have fun. Just let me demonstrate what’s gonna happen if you do...”

Daniel’s board was still sitting on the ramp, close to the descent. Ron spun around and kicked it. Hard.

It shot downwards, rapidly gaining speed until it did a quick hobble, was thrown off its course, somersaulted through the air and crashed down on the lower steps.

“Will you two idiots come down from there before you go at each other again?” Grey asked into the ensuing silence.

Daniel swallowed hard and looked at the teenager beside him. “I’m sorry. You pushed me and I over reacted.”

Ron carefully circled his shoulders. “You got a pretty good grip there. Of course then you have to ruin the coolness by apologizing, pansy.”

Daniel scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I think you just broke my board, you moron.”

“Nah, your board is a lot harder than your egg head.”

Daniel took a deep breath. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, just my pride.” They climbed off the ramp and Ron groaned. “And my ass.”

“Look, I’m really so...”

“Dude, if you apologize one more time I’ll push you down that escalator myself,” Ron threatened him and stalked towards their favorite seating area.

Tara who had run downstairs to pick up Daniel’s board returned a bit out of breath and handed it to him. “It’s still in one piece, just lost a bit of paint.”

He took it and examined it himself, mumbling, “Thanks.”

“Are you okay, D.?”

“I… shouldn’t have gone down on him.” He still felt shaken by that. Ron’s assault had come so out of the blue. Apparently even after all these years he still had those deeply ingrained reflexes from his time on SG-1. Attack – defense.

“He’s had it coming for a long time,” Grey said with a shrug. “He’s been a bit of a bitch lately.”

“I don’t take well to being assaulted. It’s a bit of a thing… from my foster care days.” That wasn’t all lies, it was just a very distorted fragment of the truth.

But maybe Grey was right, maybe there had been some pent-up annoyance as well because Ron kept acting as if those three years he had on him – or thought he had – made him superior.

“He won’t do that again. Got the message. He’s had trouble at home lately, but that’s no excuse.”

Tara looked worried. “You think? His dad usually doesn’t even acknowledge he’s there.”

“Yeah, but he failed math and history last term. His mom’s getting a bit antsy. Threatened to take away his board. He’s only going home to sleep lately,” Grey murmured.

“Oh boy.” Tara let out a huge sigh. “His mom is the only one still treating him like a person around there.”

Daniel listened quietly. He had no idea about Ron’s troubles. As if he had read his thoughts, Grey said, “He came out two years ago and they didn’t take it well. But he’s usually okay. He’s spending a lot of time at our house. My parents like him a lot and they know.” Changing the subject, the blond boy grinned. “Great moves, by the way. That looked pretty neat how you took him down.”

“Yeah, good reflexes.” Tara eyed him. “You’re full of surprises, Daniel Jackson O’Neill.”

Daniel bit his lip. “No, I’m not.”

“Sure you are. You drive like a pro, can knock out a guy who’s at least a head taller than you are. What’s next? Can you jump out of helicopters?” Tara’s voice was teasing and Grey laughed, but Daniel’s unease was growing. He needed to watch himself.

“I just got lucky.” He shrugged.

“Oh, no, you didn’t. I know good hand-to-hand when I see it,” Tara said. “My dad used to practice at home with my cousin. A lot. I bet the general showed you.”

“Yeah, he did.” Daniel really wanted to change the subject, but Tara had other ideas.

“Ron only pushed you because he thought you were going to ride down though,” she said fiercely, apparently suddenly remembering the reason for Ron’s actions. “What were you thinking? Are you out of your mind?”

“Well, you said it yourself, I’m full of surprises. Maybe I can skate down an escalator?”

“You’re full of shit, too,” Tara pointed out coolly and walked away.

Daniel followed her slowly. Watching them go down there… despite the fact he had been worried for their safety... had been a bit of a kick. It had looked easy, fun, reckless. He hadn’t done anything truly reckless in ages. And yes, he’d been arrogant enough to believe that after everything he’d done in his life, doing that jump would be a piece of cake. _They_ could do it without breaking their necks – why shouldn’t he?

“She’s worried ‘bout you,” Grey said superfluously. “But she’s right, yanno. Don’t do it.”

Daniel didn’t reply to that, but he was relieved to find that, once they all had settled down for snacks, Ron seemed back to his normal self as he explained how to practice for the escalator stunt.

When he was done elaborating on it, he batted his long dark eyelashes at Daniel. “Are you up to it, Superman?”

“Sure. Show me.”

  


In addition to the parking lot in the front Spring Mall had an underground two-story car park. The stairwells leading to it were all locked so they had to leave the Mall, walk around to the driveway and go through the barriers. There had been vandalism here, too. The red-white striped turnpikes were dented and one of them hung askew on its pole.

As soon as they had crossed the barrier, lights came on along the curved driveway leading downwards.

“It’s nuts that they never turned off the automatic lights. Must be a motion detector,” Tara whispered.

“Why are you whispering, Tink?” Ron chuckled. “There’s no one here.”

“Oh, bite me,” Tara muttered.

They descended the driveway which was kind of gloomy because the lights didn’t reach every nook and cranny. There were dancing shadows everywhere. Daniel had associations of old deserted tombs, abandoned motherships and caves as they descended into the car park.

When they had reached the bottom light after light on the ceiling sprang to life revealing dozens of empty parking spaces. A couple of shopping carts thrown onto the ground upside down was all there was to see down here.

The rank odor of car exhaust still hung in the air and the pavement showed oil stains and old skid marks.

“Okay, we’ll start slow. Let’s go back up to the first bend,” Ron decided.

Then Daniel was surrounded by his three teachers as he learned to go down the driveway into the car park, little by little. He had done short descents and of course the bowl at the skate rink, but this was different. It was a very long curved slope. He started at first third of the descent, taking one of the long drawn-out curves over and over again, practicing to keep his balance without braking.

“You can’t brake on the escalator,” Ron told him. “If you try to brake, you’ll hitground. You need to balance your body and go with the flow, keep yourself centered as you get faster and faster.”

He watched Grey and Tara go down the whole driveway top to bottom and Ron told him what to look for. The way they held their arms, positioned their feet, moved their upper bodies, used their hips for balancing out the slopes.

They were fast. Neck breaking fast. Daniel wished he had brought his helmet. Or even his pads. He considered wearing his bike helmet even if it wasn’t supposed to be safe enough for skating.

He made a mental note to just store his skate helmet here to have it at hand when he needed it.

“Try going down half of the driveway now,” Grey encouraged him.

He managed the first curve with flourish, but the speed he was gaining made the wheels of his board vibrate under his feet and as he tried to balance out the wobble, he felt the air shift and then he and his board parted ways and he went down on his left shoulder, banged his elbow on the concrete and barely managed to avoid tumbling down the rest of the driveway or hitting his head.

For a moment he lay very still and just focused on getting air into his lungs. In. Out. In. Out.

Tara and Grey were by his side. “Can you move? Careful… easy…”

He focused on his body, took another deep breath. “Fine,” he ground out. He struggled to sit and they gently took him by the shoulders to support him.

“Are you dizzy? Nauseous? Have trouble breathing?” Tara checked expertly.

“No.” Daniel circled his head.

“Did you hit your head?” Grey asked.

“No.” He came to his feet and winced. His shoulder hurt a little, but his arm hurt a little more. And there was blood dripping down his elbow. He moved his arm, up and down, turned the hand, wrist. All in working order.

“You’re bleeding. We should put iodine on that,” Tara said. “And we are not doing this again until after the Rainbow Center party.”

No one objected.

They went back into the mall and Tara whipped out the small first aid kit they kept here. She expertly cleaned the bloody graze on his elbow, disinfected it and put some band aid spray on it. “But you should go home and put ice packs on that,” she said when she was done.

“Anyone notice how she wasn’t worried about me when little Ninja Turtle here attacked me? I’m pretty sure my butt is bruised pretty bad.” Ron asked sarcastically, but grinned that mischievous grin of his no one could resist.

“Shut up, Ron,” Grey said dryly.

“I need to make the rounds and water the plants,” Tara said. “You guys go home – both of you – and put cool packs on your bruised body parts.”

“I’ll help with the plants,” Grey offered.

Daniel and Ron trudged downstairs and walked to their bikes in silence. Once they had unlocked and pushed them out onto the front parking lot, they both stood there, staring at the road with the heat flaring above the pavement.

“Does it still hurt?” Ron asked with a nod to Daniel’s arm.

“I’ll live What about your… ?”

Ron shrugged. “I skate. I get bruises all the time. Though it’s been a while now.” He looked Daniel up and down. “You’re good. I banged myself up a lot more when I started skating, even after a year or so.”

“That’s because you’re reckless.” Daniel had seen this guy doing things on his board he hadn’t thought possible. Ron was someone you couldn’t help but admire even if you wanted to throttle him at the same time. He wondered if Jack had been like this as a teenager.

Ron smirked. “No pain, no gain, dude.” He fumbled in the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a rumpled pack of cigarettes.

“I gotta go,” Daniel said. It wasn’t his job to tell Ron to quit smoking, but he didn’t have to stay and watch him do it.

Ron fished for his lighter in his other pocket and gave him the thumb’s up.


	6. VI

**VI**

Daniel could sense there was trouble in the air as soon as he had locked his bike in the garage and stepped out into the back yard.

Probably alerted about Daniel’s arrival by the dog, Jack was standing on the deck, arms crossed, scowl firmly in place.

Not good.

“Get in here. Now.”

Not good at all.

He checked his watch. He wasn’t late.

He climbed the three steps to the deck and put his most charming smile on. “Hey, Jack, what’s up?” And before he could stop himself he added, “You seem a bit cranky.”

“I am. And I can assure you I’m getting crankier by the minute.”

Daniel opted not to reply to that as he walked inside. Jack closed the door and asked the dreaded question. “Where have you been?”

“Skating. Why?”

“Right. Skating. Had fun? Tried lots of new tricks, didya?”

Annoyance crept in to join Daniel’s confusion. “Yes, I did. Why? What?!”

“Explain.”

Daniel’s eyes followed Jack’s outstretched finger to the coffee table… with his pads and helmet sitting on top.

“Oh.” He raised his arm to wipe sweat from his brow. “I, uh, I forgot to…” And then he decided that offense was the best defense. “Were you in my room?” he snapped. “What were you doing in there?!”

“I wasn’t in your room. I found it in the garage. On a shelf. Pretty dusty, too.” Then Jack was by his side in two steps and gently, but firmly seized his wrist. “Wait, what’s this?”

Daniel suppressed a yelp at his shoulder’s protest when Jack moved his arm to look at his elbow. “It’s nothing.” He hissed in pain. “Stop it. Tara took care of it.”

“Did she clean it before she put iodine on it?”

“Yes, with alcohol wipes. She’s got a first aid kit.”

Jack let go of his arm and Daniel made the mistake of carefully moving his shoulder and winced.

“Take your shirt off.”

“I’m fine.” He crossed his arms tightly over his chest and regretted it immediately. His shoulder did not like that move. He huffed and let his arms drop to his side. “It’s just a bruise.”

“You can let me take a look at it now or get your butt into the truck to let Janet take care of you,” Jack threatened.

“Oh, you wouldn’t!”

“Try me.”

“Fine.” With another huff and a painful grunt he jerked the shirt over his head and dropped it to the ground.

Jack examined his shoulder. “You’re right, it’s just a bruise. Go, get the Voltaren gel. And the ice pack.”

“I can put it on myself. I’ll be in my room.” He stalked to the bathroom and went through the motions on auto pilot. Rubbing the gel into the painful area without making it hurt even more turned out to be difficult, but he gritted his teeth and did it. Finally he placed a hand towel over his shoulder and went into the kitchen to get the ice pack from the freezer.

He knew he wasn’t going to escape interrogation, but he needed to stall enough to come up with an explanation or at least a way to get out of this mess without being grounded for life for not wearing the damn helmet.

Only his brain was drawing a total blank. He probably should have had Janet take a look at his arm. Might have given him enough time to come up with something, anything… Or not.

When he finally entered his room, he was greeted by Jack sitting on his bed, the helmet in his lap. “Let’s have a little chat, shall we?”

He slumped on his bed and draped the cool pack over his shoulder. “There’s nothing to talk about. I forgot to take it with me.” He gave the helmet the evil eye.

“Daniel, I’m well aware you’re not wearing your knee and elbow pads even after what happened to your knee...”

Daniel cringed a little. “Uhhh...”

“Yeah, well, despite what you may think, I’m not _that _dense. If you’d been wearing them they’d actually look worn by now. I get that they limit your moves. But the helmet is not negotiable, buddy, and you know it.”

“Yeah, I know. Sorry.”

“When was the last time you actually wore it?”

“I don’t know. Some time… ago.” He knew he was busted, there was no way out of it. He sighed.

“Did the Rainbow Center change its policy about helmets at the skate area?”

“No,” Daniel ground out.

Jack’s eyebrow did the slow upward turn. “Sooo… ?”

“Sooo...” _I wore my bike helmet_, came to mind. Or; _I borrowed a helmet from someone._ None of that would fly. “You’re not missing a beat, huh?” Daniel squirmed a little under Jack’s penetrating glare.

“Special Ops here. Interrogations and me are like this,” Jack held up two crossed fingers. Then he moved right on. “Here’s another one for ya. Didn’t you tell us there’s a first aid nurse at the center?”

He closed his eyes briefly. “There is.”

“Then why does Tara carry a first aid kit with her?”

He opened his mouth, shut it and wished he could ask to speak to his lawyer or something. “She likes to be prepared?” was all he could think off, but it came out very feeble.

The silence between them grew more dense with every second.

Finally Jack brushed his thumb over the helmet and held it up for Daniel to see the smudges of dust on it. “This has been stuffed into the shelf for a while. A week, maybe two? What do you think?”

Damn damn damn, now he remembered he had left it there a couple weeks ago and then forgotten all about it. Jack only went into the garage when he needed tools or when the weather was so bad that he had to actually put the truck in there.

“I was going to tell you,” he muttered. “I just didn’t know how. And I was waiting for the right time.”

“Good. Now’s the time. Tell me.”

“We have a new place to skate. It’s always so crowded at the center and the younger kids keep getting in the way. It’s much better where we are now, lots of space and cool flooring and no one’s interrupting.”

“_Good for you_.”

“It’s very cool. It’s full of challenges for me to try out. Benches and steps and stairs… just small ones, don’t worry… and we can stay as long as we want and practice as much as we want.” Daniel was desperately looking for words to describe it better, to stall for time, to avoid the next looming question.

It seemed to work. Jack’s stern expression turned to puzzled for a moment. “O-kay… so, why didn’t you just tell us you’re going elsewhere?” Then the glare was back. “Daniel? Where exactly is this new skater’s paradise?”

He adjusted the cool pack on his shoulder. “I, um, can’t tell you.”

“Why? Is it classified?”

Daniel tried not to cringe at the biting sarcasm. “In a strange way, yes, it is.”

“You know I’ve got highest clearance. Spill.”

“Ja-ack. I can’t.” He had dreaded this so much. He wished BD was here. Even though he wasn’t sure BD would have his back on this. “I promised.”

“You’re not hanging out anywhere I don’t know about.”

They were at a dead end Daniel knew he wouldn’t get out off. He tried anyway.

“Jack, I’ve been going there for weeks now and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I knew exactly how this would go down. If you’d just accept that I can take care of myself and that we aren’t doing anything but skate...”

“_Weeks?_”

“I… does it really matter where we skate? It’s just a place like any other place, it just suits us better.” He started chewing his bottom lip, then stopped and mumbled. “Did I already say I was sorry I didn’t tell you?”

“Where?” Jack’s voice had dropped to a deadly calm.

They sat there on Daniel’s bed, brown eyes boring into blue ones in a silent battle of wills.

“Somewhere in town.”

“_Where_ in town?”

“Jack...”

“No. Don’t even start.”

“I can’t tell you.”

“So you keep saying.”

Daniel knew they weren’t going to see eye-on-eye on this one. He hated when that happened. He wanted to reach out and take the first step toward making it better again before it got worse, but he felt he had no choice but to stand by his word.

And Jack wasn’t going to budge.

“I’m sorry,” he offered softly.

“Yeah. Me too.” Jack stood, helmet in hand, and said the dreaded words. “You’re grounded until further notice. You can walk the dog and go to your tree house, that’s it.”

“Jack...” Daniel shook his head. “You can’t do that.”

“You know the rules. You go out, I know where you’re going or you don’t go.”

“I know, but… You can’t ground me! The Rainbow Party is in three weeks, I need to practice.”

“It’s up to you.”

“_I told you I can’t tell you!_ And blackmailing me won’t work.”

“Then I hope you enjoy your time at Casa O’Neill.”

“Don’t do this,” he almost choked on the, “please. Jack? Just…”

“How long?”

“Uh, I… don’t...” He gritted his teeth when he realized he wasn’t able to avert his eyes and he couldn’t lie either. “The week after my birthday.” Daniel was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

He hated that disappointed look in Jack’s eyes, hated how that made him feel, but also at the same time loathed Jack’s calm, almost cold, determination as he ripped away Daniel’s privileges… his freedom… his life.

“Fuck you,” he spat. “You can stick your rules where the sun doesn’t shine!”

When he had been really young and tended to throw full blown,all out tantrums he had often ended up on a chair facing a wall to calm down. Now, on the rare occasion when he got like this, he was usually sent down to his gym to work it out.

Today Jack just looked at him. “You want the whole nine yards? Fine.” He held out his hand, palm up. “Your phone and key. Keep going and your iPod will be gone.”

Daniel felt his throat getting tight. He considered flat out refusingto see where it would take him, but instead of digging his heels in and fighting it out he pulled his phone from his pants pocket with trembling fingers and handed it over, then grabbed his key ring and removed his house key. He wanted to throw it at Jack, real bad. Instead he dropped it into his palm, right next to the phone.

He needed to get his act together. Fast.

As if he had read his thoughts, Jack said on his way to the door, “Go, beat the crap out of the punching bag.”

* * *

Jack had thrown his clothes into the hamper and taken a shower. Prior to finding Daniel’s protective gear in the garage he had been working in the back yard all day and he had been in bad need of cooling down, physically and emotionally. The cold water had rinsed his body and cleared his head.

At least physically it made him feel more human again, too.

He was in the bedroom toweling off when he heard the heart wrenching yowling coming from the basement. It had probably started when he’d been under the shower and he just hadn’t heard.

With a sigh Jack slipped into a pair of shorts, not bothering with a shirt, and went down the stairs where he found the dog flat on his belly, nose pressed against the door to Daniel’s gym as if he was trying to squeeze himself through the small slit between door and flooring.

“You’re a smart dog. I don’t get why you never figured out how to open doors,” Jack muttered.

A sad… or maybe it was meant to be accusing… whine was the only response as Flyboy began scratching the floorboards in the desperate attempts to dig himself under the door.

Jack knocked. Once. Twice.

There was no reply. Only the steady smack – smack – smack of Daniel’s pummeling the punching bag.

“Daniel, let the dog in. He’s ruining the floor!” He waited a moment.

SMACK SMACK SMACK… Harder. Definitely louder now.

Jack opened the door and Flyboy squeezed past him as soon as he realized the way inside was no longer blocked

Jack caught a glimpse of the teen’s moving back muscles and flying fists. Even though the regular work out had given LD some nice muscle, he still mostly looked like a kid. There wasn’t any chest hair yet, but he had started to look a bit out of proportion lately; long arms and legs, while the rest of his body was still waiting for the growth spurt in order to keep up. But in just a couple of years from now Daniel would already be very close again to what he used to look like before the downsizing.

First the voice though, and probably zits. Apparently the hormonal changes messing with his mind were already in full flow.

The punching bag was still being tortured and Jack wasn’t kidding himself – this was him. He could as well pin a picture of himself on that punching bag. When Daniel had been at the beginning of this journey Jack had gotten used to taking all the verbal blows, all the anger, upon him like a lightening conductor.

He had signed up to be Daniel’s rock when he took the kid in applied for adopting him.

They would get through this one as well, but it dawned on him that they were just at the beginning of puberty and that it was probably going to get a lot worse before it got better. Jack wasn’t quite sure if he was ready for the ongoing struggles to start all over again just yet.

Not that he had a choice or anything. They would just have to muddle through like they always had.

The dog pushed his nose against Daniel’s leg and kept yelping until Daniel stopped hitting the bag. He lowered his hands and stood in the middle of the room, head bowed, breathing harshly.

There was a wretched sob.

Jack was drawn to him, took one step, then another. No matter how angry he was or that he was convinced he had done the right thing. He had to do something to make this better somehow...

But Daniel slipped to the ground cross legged and immediately the dog was in his lap, gently licking his face, nudging his head, doing his job of consoling the bratling when Jack couldn’t.

This was his cue to leave.

He retreated and softly closed the door, decided 16:00 was late enough for beer and went upstairs to get a cold one from the fridge. He had just settled in one of the deck chairs when he heard the familiar sound of BD’s jeep turning into the driveway.

One of the huge upsides of having two Daniels in his life was that he didn’t have to face the occasional kid-related crisis alone anymore.

Daniel sauntered in through the gate, already opening his wrinkled white shirt. He slipped out of it by the time he had climbed the deck and threw it over the backrest of one of the chairs. “As soon as you step out of the mountain it’s like Thor’s hammer striking you down,” he groaned. Then he took one look at Jack and frowned. “What’s going on?”

Jack raised his beer in greeting. “Oh, I replaced some rotten boards on the tree house deck, worked in the back yard, ruined Little D’s life… that’s about it, yep.”

The adult version of said Little D sat down in the chair beside him and pinched the bridge of his nose, then blinked multiple times. Probably the contacts giving him fits. “Okay… How… exactly did you ruin Daniel’s life?”

Jack gave him the short run down, closing with, “I can’t tell you what I’m more pissed about. That he won’t tell me where he’s spending his time, that he has been going behind our backs about where he’s been going for weeks or that he doesn’t bother to wear that damn helmet.”

“I guess helmets are the epitome of uncool,” Daniel said upon a sigh.

“Yeah, I know. They also keep you from having your brains splattered all over the ground when you fall. Just happened today - he came home bruised and bloody.”

“He hit his head? Is he okay?”

“No, his arm, shoulder… he’ll live. But that’s not the point.” Jack downed his beer.

“No, of course not, you’re right.” Daniel leaned back and gazed at the blue cloudless sky. “I guess grounding him was the logical consequence. But do you really think he’ll come around and tell us where he goes?”

“Well, otherwise he’s going to spend a lot of time at home,” Jack grumbled. “God help us all.”

“Yesss. Unless you’re willing to let him keep his secret and have things his way…”

“Nope.”

“Then we have to go through with it. You did what most parents probably would have done.”

Jack grimaced. He wasn’t most parents. And Daniel wasn’t most kids. “I just took away his social life. He finally found friends his age and I cut him off from that.” And that made him feel like the asshole parent despite the fact that he thought he had done the right thing. “He was livid. I haven’t seen him like this in… years.”

“Then find another way.”

“You got any bright ideas? Because now would be the time to clue me in,” Jack snapped.

But Daniel shook his head. “Actually, no, I don’t. Not if you insist on him telling you what he doesn’t want to tell you.”

“It’s not just that. He’s been lying to us...”

“Holding back...”

“Counts as lying in my book!” Jack felt his blood pressure rise again. He knew that whenever Daniel went behind his back there were _reasons_ and that he had to take those reasons into consideration eventually. But Jack needed time to get there. Because the breach of trust was there. And it cut. Deep.

“You said he made a promise to Tara and the guys. He’s going to stick to that promise...”

“Ye-ah...”

“He’s in a bit of a dilemma.”

“Hey, on who’s side are you?” Jack snapped.

“I’m just trying to find a way out of his mess. Because you just said it yourself, you cut off his social life,” Daniel pointed out, then frowned. “Unless he can at least text with them… wait, did you take away his phone?”

“I, uh, might have been a little pissed when he told me to fuck off. Phone and key are gone.”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Oh, you _did _ruin his life. Well done, Jack.”

“Hey! I haven’t changed the wifi password - yet. He still has his laptop. He can e-mail them, chat on AIM, whatever! And maybe, just maybe, that’s what it takes to get him to tell us. Blackmail is a valid parenting tool.” Jack hated that he felt the need to justify himself, but there it was.

“And for how long do you intend to keep this up? Weeks? Months? Made a list of chores yet? If you intend to keep him grounded for the rest of his puberty you better find ways to keep him busy.”

“Let’s start with a week and see where it’ll take us,” Jack said. But he had a feeling BD was right. This was going to become a long,hard battle, if not a full fledged war.

“I’ll go talk to him.”

“You’re not going to give in to him,” Jack warned. Then when Daniel had walked inside, he muttered a bit sheepishly. “That’s my job. And it’s gonna happen on my terms.

He went to get a second beer and, while he was in the kitchen, opened a bottle of red wine for Daniel and let it sit on the counter to breathe. Then he stood quietly, listening for any signs of the conversation. Like yelling on the kid’s part. Or slamming doors. Anything.

He heard Daniel’s low voice asking for permission to enter. Several times.

Then silence.

That was going well. Not.

Jack had just gotten one of the large bulbous glasses out when Daniel was back, resignation written all over his face. “He locked his door.”

“That bad, huh.”

“Yeah.” Daniel took the glass of wine Jack handed him with a wry smile. “Thanks.”

“Let’s give it a week,” Jack repeated with a confidence he didn’t feel.

“And then what?”

“I don’t know. But he’s usually ready to have a civilized conversation after a bit of stewing.”

“What about you?” Daniel cocked his head. “You’ve been a bit short fused about his new hobby lately. You think you’ll be able to have a,” Daniel made air quotations with his fingers, “civilized conversation about this with him?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you both might have to compromise here. Usually you’re pretty good at finding a deal that suits both of you at least partly. But I’m not sure about this time.”

“You’re right, Daniel, because there’s no deal here. He’s going to tell me where he goes every weekend or he won’t go there anymore, it’s that simple.”

“And based on this kind of attitude you want to have a civilized conversation with him.”

“Has it ever occurred to you that there is an actual reason they made him promise not to tell anyone?” Jack slammed his beer on the kitchen table. “I am telling you, they’re either trespassing including breaking and entering somewhere or it’s a dangerous place. Probably both.”

“So track him, see where he’s going and then decide what to do about it.”

“No.”

“You either track him or force him to tell you. Where’s the difference?”

“I made a promise not to track him unless I believe his life might be on the line. You know that.” And Jack intended to stick to that promise because Daniel had only given permission to have the GPS implant under the condition that Jack would never use it to control his whereabouts or show up somewhere and drag him home. “I respect that boundary. But I expect him to respect mine, too.”

Daniel nodded. “It’s going to be a tough week.”

“Oh yeah.”


	7. VII

**VII**

Daniel walked into LD’s office, an about face to signal that he was coming in peace, and found his younger version studying a stone tablet. By his side was a tome of a dictionary and piles of research notes were littered all over his desk. “’m busy,” LD muttered, not taking his eyes off the tablet.

“Lunch time,” Daniel coaxed. “Lemon chicken or vegetarian pizza.”

“I already had lunch,” LD replied absently.

“Really?”

“Yes. Really. With Bill Lee and Nyan. Try the pizza, it’s very good.”

Daniel gazed at the bowed blond head for a moment. “Okay. I’ll do that,” he said awkwardly. “Um… Jack says he’s going to drive you over to Doc Murphy’s office for your appointment today.”

That, however, got the kid’s attention. He looked up, tired angry blue orbs behind the glasses. “What happened to Josh?”

“He’s occupied...” Daniel started, but was interrupted sharply.

“Then I’ll postpone the appointment.”

Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, Daniel, you already moved your appointment to today because you refused to go on Wednesday. I think it’s important you talk to someone about this and Doc Murphy is going to listen to you without judgment. Which is something even I can’t do right now, to be honest.”

“I’m sorry you feel this way, but I can’t help you with that.”

LD looked tired and Daniel wondered if he had slept last night. If he had gotten much sleep at all this whole week. They tended to drown out unresolved emotional issues with work. And while LD wasn’t allowed to take classified work home with him, he had enough non-classified research material to work on into the late hours of the night. What was he doing all the time he locked himself away in his room?

“I want your word that you will see Doc. Murphy soon,” Daniel prompted.

The boy gave him an irritated look. “I’ll only postpone to next Wednesday. I will go and talk to the doc then. If Josh is driving. In the meantime you can tell _him_ he doesn’t need to bother.” Back down went the head and the book’s page was turned. “I need to finish this today.”

“The two of you need to talk.”

“No, we really don’t.” Up came the head again. “And neither do _we,_ by the way.”

“I’m not your enemy. And neither is Jack.”

LD grabbed the headphones of his iPod and stuck them in his ears.

Defeated for now, Daniel turned on his heel and walked out.

Seven days into this.

Seven days and counting.

When Daniel had predicted that it would be a tough week he had envisioned endless arguing, door slamming, yelling, more arguing. Because he had expected LD to make his stand, try to negotiate, come up with all kinds of reasons why he shouldn’t be grounded and why he had to practice for his competition… in the short term he had expected the kid to drive Jack crazy enough to bury him under a list of chores like cleaning the bathroom with a toothbrush or something just to get him to shut up.

What he hadn’t expected was this total lack of confrontation – and therefore communication.

Last Sunday LD had holed up in his room and dodged any and all attempts of Jack or Daniel trying to coax him out or being allowed to go in and talk to him. On Monday he had announced he would call Josh to take him to work and back home again from now on. When Jack had flat out refused to make Josh do all these extra tours LD decided riding with Daniel was the lesser of two evils.

And so it had continued.

Monday night LD had cooked and then taken his dinner with him to his room. He had walked the dog that night and then gone to bed without so much as a ‘Good Night’. Jack had gone to check on him and found his door locked again.

After he had overheard a round of back and forth arguing through the closed door Daniel had seen Jack standing there, one palm pressed against the door, head down, waiting. Then, after a long moment, Jack had turned towards him and shaken his head, his expression somewhere between pained and angry.

As the week had progressed LD refused to even be in the same room with Jack and Jack eventually stopped trying to reach out to him. On day four, after LD had canceled his Doc Murphy appointment and Jack had thrown in his two cents about that in a very loud and confronting way, the fronts on either side of the demilitarized zone between them had already been rock hard and as cold as Antarctica.

Daniel had tried to mediate, but that was a near impossible task when one of them was balking at any approach of communication and the other one wouldn’t give an inch. But both of them were on the same page when it came to accusing Daniel of being on the wrong side. And when he explained to them that he chose to be Switzerland because as someone who was trying to solve things rather than take sides he was trying to stay neutral, both of them accused him of not taking sides.

It was a fine mess.

Tomorrow marked the last day of the ‘give it a week’ time frame Jack had set for this.

But Daniel had the sinking feeling this was far from being over.

He entered the commissary, chose the recommended pizza, and sat down at their designated table. He answered Jack’s questioning eyebrow and Sam’s worried look with a shrug. “He already had lunch.”

“Bill and Niyan again?” Sam’s eyes darted over to Jack, then back to Daniel.

“Yep.” Daniel took a bite of pizza and then pushed his plate away. It was almost cold already and kind of greasy.

“Good for him,” Jack said as he continued to cut his chicken into small pieces. “Did you tell him I’m going to drive him today?”

“Ye-ah. He said he’ll postpone.”

“Oh, no, he won’t. Murphy needs to talk some sense into him. He’s going to go see him even if I have to drag him there by his ears.”

“Good luck,” Daniel said laconically.

“Sir, I think the chicken is dead.”

Jack looked down at it. “Ya think?” He started eating doggedly.

Sam finished her blue jell-o and picked up a second bowl. “They’re not born like that, right?”

“Like what?” Jack eyed her. “You sure you want to eat that much jell-o, Carter? We don’t want a jelly bean baby.”

“Like… I don’t know…” She looked at her jell-o, shrugged and continued eating.

“Irritable? Sulking? Annoying? Brats?” Jack filled in the blanks.

She nodded. “Yeah. I mean, they are really cute and adorable at first, right?”

“Oh yeah. Well, they cry a lot. Might not sleep. And puke a lot. Oh, and load those diapers real fast. But cute, yep. Adorable for sure. Cozy.” Jack confirmed. “The irritable, sulking, bratty part happens later. Like when they turn two.”

“Thank you for the pep talk, sir.”

“You could practice, you know? For when your kid is older. You could try talking to LD,” Daniel suggested. “Get a taste of advanced parenthood.”

“Or you could try talking to a wall instead,” Jack muttered.

Sam put down her empty bowl next to the other one. “I already did. He believes we are all just trying to get him to give in.”

“Isn’t that exactly what we’re trying to do?” Jack asked.

“Sir, Daniel is protecting his friends. Or his friends’ go-to place. By forcing him to tell you where that is you’re forcing him to betray their trust. I don’t think he’s going to do that. I’m not saying you should just leave him be, but...” She turned to Daniel with a helpless flirt of her shoulders. “Actually, I… I’m not sure what exactly I’m saying.” She stood, stretched and moaned. “Four more weeks. I can’t wait to have my body back.”

They watched her navigate her baby bump out of the commissary. Last week Sam had complained to Daniel about constantly running into door frames and up against furniture because of that bump. And that she thought she was waddling now. He felt she handled the bump just fine. But was with her on the waddling part. Not that he’d ever tell her that.

When he turned back to his lunch, Jack had made it halfway through his chicken and pushed his plate away. “Alright, my turn. Where is he?”

“In his office. Careful, though, there’s a pretty heavy stone tablet on his desk. Don’t provoke him into throwing that at you.”

“How nice that you’ve kept your sense of humor,” Jack said bitingly.

“Want me to go with you?”

“No, I’ll handle it.”

Daniel watched him stalk out and restrained himself from going after him to make sure no one got hurt.

  


An hour later he was in the archeological lab, carefully straightening out rolls of papyrus to take photos of the text for the archives, when Jack walked in, leaned against one of the shelves with priceless artifacts waiting to be categorized, and crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you taking him home?”

“Weren’t you going to drag him to his appointment this afternoon – by his ears?”

Jack gave him a mulish look. “He already postponed.”

“And?”

“I called Murphy myself and he said he already put someone else into the free slot.”

“Okay… if you want to pin him down to talk, maybe you should take him home. He’d have nowhere to go once he’s in the truck with you.”

“Apparently he isn’t ready. Or maybe I’m not ready. We’re probably both not ready, whatever.” Jack looked as if he had bitten into a lemon. “Doc Murphy wants to see us both to talk about this mess.”

“Maybe that’s not a bad idea. Did you make an appointment?”

Jack reached into the shelf to his right and randomly pulled out an item to fiddle with it. Daniel got up and took it out of his hand. “That’s… fragile.” He picked a stone amulet and handed him that instead.

Jack turned it over in his hand, looked at it and absently rubbed the surface with his thumb. “I told him I’d have to check back with you first and that one of us will call him back. And then Daniel told me to find my own shrink or better yet get a lobotomy. So, no, I’m not going to try and pin him down to talk again today.”

“Jack...”

“What?” It came out harsh, all the suppressed anger and frustration balled up into that one word. “You taking him home or not? Otherwise he can stay in his base quarter for all I care.”

Daniel raised his hands in a calming gesture. “Yes, I’ll take him home.”

“Good.” Jack put the amulet back. “As soon as I get home I’m going to change that wifi password.”

“And that’s going to help solving things… how?”

“It won’t. But once he’s read and re-read all his books he’ll be bored out of his skull without the internet. Might actually get him to leave his room.” Jack walked out and Daniel considered briefly living in his own house for a while.

* * *

Little Daniel finished his bowl of ratatouille and put it on his nightstand. All things considered having his meals in his room wasn’t so bad. He could eat in bed, read a book, be on his laptop or listen to his iPod while he ate. A freedom of multitasking he couldn’t indulge in when he was eating with Jack and Daniel. They had agreed on no phones, books, tablets or laptops during family meals some time ago.

He decided this was much better. He glanced at his open AIM messenger and smiled at the last post he had gotten from Tara saying she was there now.

Then he realized AIM had disconnected. He was offline. He checked his internet connection. It was off. When he tried to reconnect it demanded a password. This could only mean one thing.

Jack had cut him off from the internet.

“Son of a bitch,” he whispered. But he wasn’t going to give in to the urge to confront and throw a fit. He could live without the internet just fine. He had tons of reading material on his laptop. And in his shelves.

_And if you think I’m too stupid to rig it and set up a new password, you’re in for a surprise,_ he thought sullenly. Sam had showed him how to do that a long time ago. And he was sure he could remember even though he had never needed to actually use that knowledge before.

Right now he had to get out of here.

He left his room and listened to any footsteps or noises in the house. It was quiet except for the TV. He heard the familiar chatter of The Simpsons and rolled his eyes. Jack was in the living room. Now Daniel’s ears also picked up the faint sound of the running shower which explained where BD was.

He though about leaving through the kitchen door, but that would only raise suspicion. And he was allowed to go to the tree house. Jack had said so. A small gift of mercy or whatever he had intended to convey by giving him that bit of personal freedom.

He straightened and stalked across the hallway, down the steps into the living room and without so much as a glance at Jack made it across the room and out the…

“Where are you going?”

_Canada, Chulak, anywhere far away from you…_ “Tree house.”

...door and into the backyard.

He took the steps two at a time and quickly opened the door, slipped in and locked it behind himself.

Tara, who was waiting for him on the small couch, surged to her feet and before he knew it she hugged him fiercely. “Oh, D, I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

He returned the embrace a bit awkwardly. “It’s okay. Not your fault.”

When she pulled back and they sat on the couch she shook her head, causing her wild hair to fly. “In a way it is. You’re in this kind of trouble because of us.”

“I’m in this kind of trouble because my stubborn SOB of a guardian doesn’t trust me to...” To stay out of trouble, to stay alive, not to be abducted by aliens. He shook his head. “It’s a long story and it always comes down to this.”

Tara frowned. “I thought you were in trouble because you won’t tell him where we skate.”

“Well, yes. That’s the effect, but not the cause.”

“He’s just doing the typical parent thing.” Tara shrugged. “Hey, we’re kids. He can’t stand the thought that we might do something illegal or dangerous. Grownups rarely believe we can calculate risks and they always think we are stupid. And they always go crazy when they think they are not in control.”

“You’re spot on about the control issue.” Daniel stepped to the window and looked out. No one had come out yet to make sure he really was at the tree house and hadn’t escaped prison.

“There’s just one weird thing about this.” Tara opened the cookie jar on the table, found it empty and put the lid back on.

“What?” Now Jack appeared in the open door, looking out over the backyard. The dog ran onto the lawn, stopped at the tree house tree and started barking. Jack called him back and threw a ball for him.

“He hasn’t called or talked to my dad about this.” Tara pulled one of those yucky pieces of strawberry gum from her jeans pocket. “Isn’t he supposed to tell him and make us all suffer? Because he wants to ‘protect’ us from ourselves by making sure we are not going back to that dangerous place?” She unwrapped the gum and popped it into her mouth. After chewing very focused for a moment she continued, “I thought he was different. Still think he is. He never told my dad about the weed and the mountain. Now that you got busted I thought he was going to report it all to him. I mean, c’mon, they see each other at the mountain, right? It would just be the logical thing to do.”

Jack kept throwing the ball, but his eyes were fixed on the tree house.

Daniel stepped away from the window. “It’s… complicated,” he said hesitantly.

“How?”

“It… just is. I think he wants to give me a chance to tell him before he starts waking sleeping dogs.” And for the first time since Jack had said the dreaded words, there were cracks in Daniel’s carefully built wall of anger, hurt pride and frustration. Maybe, just maybe, if he really told Jack they could come up with a solution to this. Or maybe Jack would understand. Sometimes Jack had an amazing level of insight when Daniel least expected it. But… no.

Jack was too gung-ho about his security issues, the legal issues of trespassing and most of all his fear about letting go of control. And he had just raised the bar by changing the wifi password. Only because Daniel had refused to let Jack drive him to his shrink appointment. Oh, and because he had postponed said appointment again.

_And maybe because of the lobotomy thing._ He cringed a little on the inside.

“You can’t tell him,” Tara blurted out, then groaned. “Oh man, you know if it was just me, I’d say tell him and I’d be grounded til Christmas or something if he calls my parents, but okay. Grey will probably be grounded, too.” She frowned. “Funny thing, if this had happened a year or so ago I wouldn’t probably have cared. My parents work, they wouldn’t even know if I snuck out the house. I used to do that a lot. But things have gotten so much better at home and I kinda don’t want to risk that.”

“What about Ron?” Daniel asked quietly.

Tara sighed. “Dunno. No one but his mom really cares one way or the other. He’s always been the odd one out in his family, but ever since he came out his dad and his brothers decided he doesn’t exist and his mom is probably just desperate. When he got arrested for spraying in town they threw him out and he stayed with Grey for a while until his mom showed up. I guess Ron will continue to go to the mall no matter what, but neither Grey nor I need the hassle. Grey’s parents are actually very cool, but...” She sighed. “We keep telling our parents we go to the center while we’re at the mall. And you know how that went down with your dad even though you only did it for a couple of weeks.” She sat motionless for a second and Daniel could see her inner fight. Then she pulled out her phone. “Aw, crap. I’m gonna tell them you had to cave. They’ll understand.”

“No.” Daniel shook his head. “I’m not going to tell him. Or Daniel.” This wasn’t just about his friends. Over the last week it had also become about Jack trying to break his will, to show him who could hold their breath longer and that when it came down to it Jack was in charge and Daniel had to either play by the rules or pay the price.

The part of Daniel that had just turned thirteen felt he had every single right to be angry and had taken the bait. Hadn’t even tried to talk his way out of it after that first angry interrogation.

He knew Jack. He knew when negotiations weren’t an option and that Jack wouldn’t give in on this one until hell froze over.

Jack didn’t care that Daniel had made a promise and needed to keep it. He would think very differently about this if Daniel had made any kind of promise to anyone on SG-1. But Tara, Ron and Grey were just kids. How worthy could a promise made to a couple of teens be?

Well, Daniel would show him. Jack wanted a war, he’d got himself a war.

“You’ll be stuck here forever. And the Rainbow Center party is in two weeks,” Tara said, torturing her gum.

“You can win the competition without me.” Daniel tried hard to ignore the sting. He hadn’t even wanted to be a part of it, but now that he wasn’t allowed to do it, it hurt. Not to mention the embarrassment of letting them all down.

Which was just another point on his ‘why I hate Jack O’Neill right now’ list.

“But we want you to be with us. You’re part of us now, you should be there.”

He smiled. “Thanks.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to tell him?”

“Yes.”

“Awww, Daniel, you rock.” She pocketed her phone and got up. “If you need anything…? Oh, wait! Almost forgot!”

“C4 to blow my prison to hell?” He grimaced. Bad joke. Very bad.

She rummaged around in the backpack she had brought with her. “From me and the guys.” A bag of gummibears and a slightly squashed pack of Twinkies were placed on the table. “I never get dessert when grounded, so just in case your life’s on the line here, too.”

“Wow, thanks. That’s...” He ripped open the bag of Twinkies, took one for himself and handed her one. “No dessert, no coffee,” he confirmed and closed his eyes in bliss at the sweetness exploding on his tongue.

“Coffee?” She pulled a face. “You drink coffee? Yuck. Wait... They let you have coffee?”

“I like it.” He shrugged and finished his Twinky. Another look out the window confirmed that Jack was still there, now sitting in a deck chair, cuddling the dog.

_He’s waiting for me,_ Daniel thought with a mixture of unease, annoyance and something else he stomped down immediately.

“I gotta go. I promised my mom I’d help her weed the front yard and it’s finally cooled down enough to do it,” Tara said.

Daniel nodded. “I’ll go first. You have to wait ‘til we’re inside. I don’t think I’m allowed to socialize. And, oh, he cut me off from the net today so AIM is a bust.”

Tara groaned. “Oh, nooo. Not the internet.” Then her eyes grew big. “We can’t even chat anymore.”

“No.”

“Rats. He can’t do that.”

“He can. But it won’t change things.”

“What are we supposed to do now? Write letters, send owls?”

“Actually I know how to reset the router and change the password again, so he won’t keep me offline for long.”

She blew a bubble with her gum and when it popped she said, “And then he’s really going to whoop your butt.” She hugged him again. “Better keep your head down for a while instead of making it worse.”

Daniel snorted and stored his new snacks in one of the cupboards before he left.

Jack was still in his chair, the dog’s head in his lap, when Daniel crossed the lawn and finally climbed the wooden steps to the deck. There he stopped and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his sweat pants.

They looked at one another.

Flyboy pulled back, squeezed past Daniel, ran over to the trees and started barking.

“Got any visitors up there?” Jack asked, then whistled and the dog returned reluctantly.

Daniel loved his dog more than anything, but sometimes he wished Flyboy was a little less on guard. He pushed the glasses up his nose. “Maybe it’s just a bird.”

Jack’s left eyebrow wandered upwards, but if he suspected something he didn’t let on.

Daniel brushed his naked toe along the wooden grain of the deck planks. He really didn’t want to do this, but he had to keep Jack’s attention and hopefully lure him inside so Tara could leave unseen. “Daniel says we should talk.”

“He does.” Jack leaned back in his chair and squinted up at him against the sun. “You ready to talk?”

“Depends.” Daniel knew this wasn’t probably the smartest way to open a dialogue.

“I agree.” They picked up the battle of stares again. “Are you going to tell me...”

“No. Are you going to lift the grounding at least so I can practice for the competition?”

“No.”

He balled his hands into fists and used Jack’s patented counting backwards from ten technique. “I’ll only skate at the center and I’m going to wear the helmet. And the knee pads.” It was all he would give him. But it was even more than he had wanted to give him.

“Nope.”

“What about wifi?”

“Are you going to tell me...”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “This is getting old.”

“Then no.” Jack got up and walked inside. Daniel gritted his teeth and blinked away something annoying in his eyes.


	8. September VIII

**VIII**

On Sunday morning Jack lowered the paper when the rumble and rattle of the coffee maker caught his attention. BD was filling a mug.

Curiously enough both their mugs were still sitting on the table.

“What’cha doin’?”

Daniel added cream and sugar and stirred. “There has to be a way to pry him out of that room.”

“Bribery?”

“You got a better idea?” Daniel leaned against the counter, cradling the mug in his hands.

“Yes, actually, let him stay in his room.” Jack ducked back behind his paper, pretending to read the sports section while all he did was stare blankly at the words, trying to get a handle on this slow burn of irritation which had been simmering under the surface.

And the brat’s attitude on top of all this wasn’t making anything better.

Nuts. Not a single olive branch coming from the stubborn wretch.

_Which isn’t entirely true,_ a tiny nagging voice tugged at Jack’s conscience. _He was trying to open negotiations Friday night. _Jack slapped that voice down right away._ Well, tough. There won’t be any negotiating on this one. _

And yet Jack had made some concessions from the start. Hadn’t changed the wifi password right away, had left him the option to go to the tree house and get out of the house to walk the dog even though he was on a timer of twenty minutes for the latter.

He knew by locking Daniel out of the internet Jack had definitely cut him off from his buddies. And he was beginning to realize that his plan to keep this up and expect the kid to cave wasn’t working out.

Yeah, well, what had he been thinking anyway?

_I thought he’d realize he’s in the wrong and set things right._

Usually Daniel had a strong sense for right and wrong and even when he was mad he eventually saw reason.

The coffee mug was slammed on the table, pulling him out of his gloomy musings. “For the record; bribery won’t work.” Big Daniel threw up his hands. “I’m taking the dog for a walk. The two of you stay here and continue the cold war, I’m out of here.”

“You chicken,” Jack called after him.

The slamming of the front door was all the answer he got.

Jack busied himself with clearing the breakfast table and starting the dishwasher. Then he went out on the deck, staring with disdain at the sunburned brown stuff that used to be his lawn. He walked around his backyard, looking for plants to prune, for weeds to pull, and came up with nothing. His was a very well taken care of backyard. But not even watering every night had rescued the lawn.

_You need to talk to the kid._

“No, I don’t,” he muttered under his breath. Because really, what exactly was he supposed to do? Give in? Let him go wherever he wanted, do whatever he wanted. He was responsible. For his safety. And making sure he stayed out of trouble.

_He’s not really thirteen and you know that._

And when did that ever stop him from getting into trouble? And besides, part of him WAS thirteen, whether Daniel liked it or not.

_You can’t lock him into the house forever._

Yeah, and it all came down to that.

Jack turned around to return the deck and continue this dialogue with himself there. He stopped mid stride when the gate to his backyard opened and the little Nox Lookalike, followed by her two pals, walked in.

Jack had to bite his lip to suppress a grin. He had to give it to them; they had made an effort here. Tara had forgone any added color to her brown hair and even tamed it into a pony tail. Her eyebrow piercing was missing, too. Ron and Grey had combed and gelled their flat tops to keep them from standing up. All three of them wore ordinary jeans and t-shirts, no sparkly rainbows and no jewelry. No ballcaps either.

And no gum.

“Who died?” he asked instead of a greeting.

Tara frowned. “Died?”

“You kids look like you’re dressed for a funeral. Where’s the pride, the color, the...” Jack waved at them, “rainbows?”

“We were trying to...” Tara bit down on her lip, then snapped back into teenage defense mode. “Whatever!”

Jack cocked his head. “If you’re here to see Daniel...”

“No. We’re here to see you, Dude,” Ron said, crossing his arms.

Tara covered her face with one hand and Grey gave his friend’s back a hard push.

Ron rolled his eyes. “I am sorry. General O’Neill, sir, we are here to see you. May we speak freely?”

“You may.”

“Okay, so… see, this isn’t Daniel’s fault. We made him promise not to tell anyone,” Ron said, both hands stuffed into the front pockets of his jeans.

“I know.”

“And if you insist on it, we’ll stop going there when he’s with us,” Tara blurted out.

Ron glared at her. “No, we won’t.”

“Yes, we will. If it’s such a big deal to him, we’ll promise not to take Daniel there anymore,” Grey said calmly.

“Or you could just tell me where you’re going and we’ll find a way to deal with it,” Jack suggested.

“Whoa, nooo-oooh way, Du… General.” Ron shook his head.

Tara stepped forward and shushed Ron with one fierce look.

_That girl really has spunk,_ Jack thought, not without admiration.

“Look, General, we get that Daniel is a couple years younger and I can assure you there’s nothing shady going on. No drugs,” she blushed just a little bit under Jack’s raised eyebrow and they both knew why. But she caught herself quickly. “no alcohol, no nothing. We don’t steal, we don’t vandalize, we just skate.”

“I’m not even spraying there,” Ron threw in and sighed, “and it’s such a waste because that place begs for some really cool graffiti.”

“Bottom line is; we’re not putting Daniel in any kind of danger,” Grey said.

“We’ll even make him wear his helmet if you insist,” Tara tried a charming smile. “I’ll do a pinky swear on it.”

“What about this mysterious place you hang out? Is it legal? Safe? What? I hate to spoil the fun for you, but turning a blind eye on you brats fooling around in some deserted warehouse, or wherever, seems like a disaster waiting to happen.” He fixed Tara with a glare. “There are only so many secrets I’m willing to keep, Miss Tink.”

She pulled a face. “And I thought you were cool. Could you please not destroy my hope that some adults are not...” She looked for a word and came up with, “jerks.”

Jack held her gaze. “Sometimes being an adult means having to be a jerk.”

“No one has to be a jerk. There’s always a choice,” the wise and powerful Tink replied.

“We are not idiots. Or babies. We are house broken and can fend for ourselves,” Ron scoffed. “We’ve been out there all year, long before we took Daniel there. Nothing’s ever happened to any of us. Don’t you worry about us getting hurt or caught. We won’t.” Jack saw passionate dark eyes in a face that was masculine and soft at the same time. Angular features, a small fuzz of dark hair, not much more than a shadow yet, but very carefully plucked eyebrows and lush lips. And behind that slightly exotic beautiful facade he saw an angry kid, but maybe also a vulnerable kid, he couldn’t really tell.

“Ron, you’re not helping,” Grey sighed. He was the opposite. Cool, calm, composed. Almost too mature for his age. His pale eyes didn’t show any anger or fear. He was the one keeping Mister Hothead in line. Now he addressed Jack in an almost business-like way. “We can’t tell you. And maybe that’s for the best because this way you’re not compromised. Sure, you can call our parents and tell them we’re up to no good, but they’re all at work all day so even if they ground us for the rest of the summer it won’t make much of a difference.”

“Mine don’t care anyway as long as I’m not arrested,” Ron said with a shrug. “They have kinda given up on me.”

“That’s not true and you know it,” Grey muttered, but it didn’t sound very convincing. “Your mom hasn’t,” he added.

Tara looked uncomfortable. “Look, General O’Neill, Daniel is our friend. I don’t know about you, but to us that means something. We don’t want to give up on skating where we do right now. But it’s not Daniel’s fault. Can’t you just let him off the hook?”

“We’ll see,” Jack said noncommittally. He knew he shouldn’t even give them an inch. He was so screwed.

“Thank you.” And before he knew it Tara’s arms were around his neck, squeezing tight. “I knew you’re not a jerk.”

He patted her back, then gently but firmly took her by the wrists, freed himself from the embrace and stepped back. “No promises. And if I let him off the hook, you’ll have to stick to your word. He can go to the center and to the mall and wherever he wants to go _as long as __he tells __me where_.”

“Word.” She made a fist and offered him her pinky.

Jack rolled his eyes. “Get outta here.”

Daniel was returning from his walk when the three of them trudged out the gate. They all greeted him with high fives and fist bumps and Tara did a quick roll on the ground with Flyboy before they got on their bikes and rode off.

“Who died?” Daniel asked, looking at their retreating backs. “I’ve never seen them so dressed so… normal.”

Jack snorted. “They’re in mourning because their fourth was thrown into the brigg.”

“Yeah, what kind of bastard would do such a thing?” Daniel unleashed the dog and they watched him traipse up on the deck where one of his water bowls was.

Jack gave him a report of the kids’ proposal. “I’m still trying to decide if I can trust them,” he said finally.

“You can trust Tara. The boys, I don’t know. But I think they’ll stick to their word.” Daniel said hesitantly.

“What?”

“Well… I’m not sure Daniel is going to take the deal. He’s retreated even more since you cut him off from the net. You want me to, uh…”

“Yeah.” Jack straightened his shoulders and, with Daniel covering his six, walked right into the lion’s den.

* * *

LD glared at his screen with the rooter settings. He had waited to see if Jack would give him the new password after all, but of course that hadn’t happened. He had also waited because…

_Because you’re not ready to cross that line_, he admitted to himself. He felt that getting into more heaps of trouble might not be worth getting the internet back. He knew how this would go down. He’d get the internet back, Jack and BD would find out soon enough and next his laptop would be gone as well as his tree house time.

It didn’t matter that it was way too hot to spend a lot of time up there. He just didn’t want to lose another piece of his personal freedom.

_But Jack cut me off without a warning, just like that,_ his stubborn kid voice pointed out. _It’s not fair._

And if they kept pissing each other off where would that take them? Where would it end, how much damage would it cause?

He pushed the laptop aside. He was so tired of this. And he ached. Deep inside. He had carefully honed and nurtured his angry frustration over the last week, but it was wearing him down and he realized he was so very close to caving.

And again he wondered if they couldn’t they find another place to skate? Some place that wasn’t illegal or dangerous or whatever other hang ups Jack and BD had about Spring Mall?

But this wasn’t really up to him, was it? He couldn’t betray his friends even if – and he grudgingly admitted that to himself – it might be the right thing, the _mature_ thing, to do.

And just like that he was mad again. Not the hot raging mad from the beginning, but mad enough to think that Jack had no right to put him into this position of having to choose between following the rules or sticking to his friends and being punished for it.

“Daniel?”

“What?!” He really didn’t want another round of ‘be a good boy and open the door so we can talk you into telling us yadda yadda’.

“We are going to lift the grounding,” BD called.

“Hey, I was going to tell him that,” Jack complained.

“You can tell him again once he’s opened that door.” BD sounded pretty fed up.

Daniel slid off his bed and stood on his side of the door. “He is? You are? No strings? No conditions?”

“Open the damn door before I change my mind.”

Daniel couldn’t risk that.

Jack and BD came in and for a moment they all just looked at one another. Then Jack sat on Daniel’s bed and BD settled into his desk chair. Daniel remained standing in the middle of his room, arms crossed, waiting.

“We want to offer you a deal,” BD said quietly.

“One time offer,” Jack added, raising his finger. BD glared at him, then turned his eyes back on Daniel. “You can consider it if you don’t want to say yes right away, but I’ll say this is your best option.”

“What’s the deal? If you’re saying I can’t see my friends anymore then the answer is no and we can save us all a lot of breath.”

“Hey, easy!”

“I’m just saying...”

“Oh, for… will you stop it and listen?”

Daniel snapped his mouth shut and nodded.

BD took a deep breath. “Thank you. And, no, nothing like that. We’re not trying to keep you away from your friends.”

“Oh, you aren’t? Could’ve fooled me,” Daniel muttered.

“Dan-ie-l...”

BD shook his head. “Jack, try counting backwards. Daniel, we are not getting anywhere as long as you act like a crabby...”

“Ha’shak?” Jack threw in.

“I was going to say teenager.”

“He just called me an idiot. Of all the things we’ve seen and heard over the years THIS he remembers,” Daniel scoffed.

“I can do better. You’ve been acting like a terrific pain in the mikta this last week,” Jack snapped.

“Okay… time out, both of you, stop it, right there,” BD groaned. “I’m not going to listen to this any longer. Daniel, do you want to go out again with your friends? Yes, or no.”

“Yes,” he said, a bit sullenly.

“Good. I know you’re in a difficult place right now. You’re starting to go through some changes, physically and mentally and all of that is putting a strain on everything. But you’ve been through this before and you know you can handle yourself better than this.”

“I don’t need a lecture about puberty, thank you,” Daniel groused. “I made a PROMISE. And even though I know no lives depend on me keeping that promise, it matters to me.” After a pause he looked directly at Jack, forcing himself to say, “And it hurts me that you don’t trust me enough to know that I would never allow my friends to put themselves in grave danger.”

The memory of the escalator bomb flashed through his mind, but he shrugged that off. Tara, Ron and Grey had been skating street style for years before he had met them. They were capable of calculating some risks as well.

After an uncomfortable moment of silence, Jack cleared his throat and when he spoke, he sounded placating. “Your buddies just stopped by to give me this really touching lecture about friendship, togetherness, skateboarding and how all grown ups are jerks.”

“They… did?” Daniel couldn’t help but smile. They had come to stand up for him. No one but SG-1 had ever done that. And no one had done it at all when he’d been this age the first time around.

“They miss you. And apparently they feel bad because you’re in trouble.” BD explained.

“Did they tell you?” Daniel caught himself wishing they had. Because it would put an end to this ongoing tug-o-war even if it meant they couldn’t go to Spring Mall anymore.

“No.” Jack didn’t look happy.

“Then what’s the deal?”

“You can go out again and basically get your freedom back. Tara, Ron and Grey agreed not to meet at their ‘secret’ place anymore when they’re with you. That’s it. That’s the deal,” BD said. “And yes, we’re very well aware that all we have is their word and yours to stick to it. But you need to be very aware of the fact that if you go behind our backs again and we find out about it...”

“...and we will because you know how bad secrets have a life of their own and tend to get out sooner or later,” Jack added.

“I’ll be grounded until I’m 18?” It was a running joke because they all knew that wasn’t going to happen.

“That trust issue you keep accusing me of? It’s going to become a very real issue if you continue down the path of secrecy and half-assed truths.”

Daniel stood motionless, gazing at the pyramid mural behind his bed, letting Jack’s words sink in. He hadn’t meant to have secrets or mess with their trust. He had never intended for this to happen – when he had given his word not to talk about Spring Mall he hadn’t considered that it might trigger this kind of consequences. And by the time he had realized that he might have made a stupid choice it had already been too late

Rock and a hard place, story of his life.

He knew one thing right away – he wasn’t happy with this solution. Because it meant he was restricted again and excluded from their Spring Mall time. It meant he hadn’t won the battle, but settled for a compromise.

But it also meant he wasn’t grounded any longer. He could go skating. Be with his friends.

Then Jack suddenly snapped. “Forget it. Deal’s off.”

“WHAT?!” both Daniel’s literally yelled.

Then Daniel realized that Jack – in his usually habit of fiddling with things – had tapped on the laptop’s touch pad, the screen had jumped back to life and…

_Oh no. No no no._

Pulling the computer around so that the Daniels could take a look at it, Jack pointed at the screen. “He was going to hack into the rooter and get a new password.”

BD threw back his head and slapped both hands over his face. “I. Don’t. Believe. This.”

The only thing Daniel could think of right now was groveling. Hard. “You have no right to be on my laptop,” he heard himself shout before he could hold back. “And you cut me off the internet, what do you expect?!”

“I expect you not to be a deceiving, lying brat! I expect you to face the consequences of your actions instead of trying to find a way around them!”

Daniel opened his mouth to say that he hadn’t intended to go through with the password setback. But he had considered it, even started the process. He glanced at BD who looked definitely pinched. “I wasn’t gonna do it,” he finally ground out. “I wanted to do it, but then I wasn’t going to.”

“Of course you weren’t,” Jack scoffed. “And pigs can fly. You are grounded, Daniel! That’s no vacation! I should have changed the damn password right away!”

“He didn’t change the password because we knew it would be hard for you not to see your friends,” BD threw in.

“Oh, an act of goodwill. How gracious of him!”

“_He _is right here, Mister!”

“Fine! And then you decided to do it anyway because I didn’t come groveling after a week!” He could see he was spot on by the way Jack’s jaw twitched and his eyes darted sideways just for a second before the glare was back directed at him.

“Yeah, I told him that wasn’t going to work, but he was kind of desperate,” BD threw in, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “It would have been nice of you not to make it worse, Daniel.”

“How am I going to make it even worse?! I’m a prisoner at home with no way of even talking to my friends, I can’t be there to support them at the skate competition. I’ve been stuck in my room...”

“YOU made the choice to stay in your room! You wouldn’t even have dinner with us,” Jack barked. “No one kept you from being part of this family but yourself!! YOU shut yourself out!”

BD said, “He’s right about that. You chose the solitary confinement. We’ve been trying to pry you out of here...”

Daniel wanted to kick something. “YES! Because I couldn’t…” He wasn’t going to admit that after his first rage had deflated he had stayed away because he had been afraid of giving in. When Jack had tried to reach out to him at first he had balked so hard because Jack was usually good at coaxing the truth out of him once they had gotten beyond the stage of trying to bite each others heads off.

But he wasn’t going to give them that. Finally he settled for, “I didn’t want to talk to you!”

“No, wind back there a little… you couldn’t? You couldn’t what? Admit that you screwed up by breaking the rules? What?” BD had set the hook and Daniel felt it sink in a little deeper.

“And what if I broke the stupid rules!?” He plowed forward in an attempt not to go down BD’s route of reasoning. “I’m tired of having to report every step I take to him!”

“Oh, so we’re back to this again, are we?! Let me bottom line this for you; you are currently thirteen...”

“I. Am. Not. Thirteen,” Daniel seethed.

“Right – Just like you’ve never been seven, eight, nine, ten… especially whenever you kept telling me you’re not. Get over it, Daniel, you are SO thirteen right now. You are the living clichè of being thirteen! Thirteen could be under your name in an encyclopedia!”

“And you’re a controlling, obstinate, patronizing, condescending dick,” Daniel shot back. “And I don’t need to listen to this.”

“All right, that’s… that’s enough.” BD surged to his feet and stepped between them, settling one hand on Jack’s chest and the other one on Daniel’s shoulder. “Why don’t we take a deep breath, calm down and try this again with a little less venom.”

Jack turned to Daniel’s bed and unplugged the laptop. “This goes with me.”

“I wasn’t going to take your stupid deal anyway!”

“Good! I’m going to call Billox and let him deal with his kid. Should have done that right away, too! Maybe he’ll have more luck talking some sense into her.”

“You can’t!”

“Watch me.”

“At… at least let me warn her. Give me my phone!”

“Not gonna happen.” Jack picked up the laptop and took a detour to Daniel’s desk to grab his TV remote. “You’re going to have a lot of time to reflect on your actions. And don’t think it’s beyond me to confiscate your books. All of them if I have to.”

Daniel opened his mouth to say he wanted to see that, but BD seized his arm, hard. “Whatever you’re about to say – don’t.” Lowering his voice, he added, “Stop provoking him further. You’re walking a very fine line here.”

“Listen to him,” Jack said, placing the iPod on top of the laptop beside the TV remote.

“Jaaack, not the iPod,” Daniel heard himself cry out. All his audio books and podcasts were on it, it had helped him in his solitary confinement as BD had called it. _Please,_ he thought, but almost bit off his tongue in his effort not to say it.

When he felt tears prick at the back of his eyes he ground out. “I’m out of here,” turned on his heel and stalked out of his room.

“Daniel, get back here, RIGHT NOW!”

In the time it probably took Jack to put Daniel’s laptop down, Daniel had made it across the hallway, into the living room, out the door and onto the deck.

But the enemy was right behind him. Daniel could almost feel his hot breath in his neck as he picked up the pair of sneakers sitting by the door and ran down the steps. Hopping across the lawn on one foot he slipped into the shoe, then switched feet.

“Daniel!” BD hollered, only to be drowned out by Jack.

“Don’t make me come after you!”

When he looked back he saw Jack coming down the deck and BD just appearing behind him in the open door.

He slipped into the garage, heart pounding in his chest, adrenalin pumping through his veins. He had no idea how this was going to go down, but right now all he wanted was to get away.

Jack was already waiting for him when he pushed his bike out the open door. “You move your butt back into the house right now.”

Deja vu.

It was a little bit like High Noon only no one had pistols to draw.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw BD coming through the gate. At first Daniel thought he would position himself as a buffer between him and Jack again, but he didn’t. He stood beside Jack and snapped. “You are going to make this a lot worse for yourself if you leave now! Try getting in touch with the older you – don’t _do _this!”

“I need space.” And he needed to talk to Tara and give her a head’s up about Jack calling her dad.

“Go to your tree house!” BD ordered sharply.

“No. I need space and distance.”

“Try leaving now and I’m going to take a page out of my father’s book of child rearing.” Jack took a step forward.

“Jack...” BD’s hand settled on Jack’s arm.

Daniel ignored all the klaxons going off in his own head, and swung one leg over his bike.

BD’s other hand landed on Jack’s shoulder, grabbing a fistful of t-shirt, holding him back as he moved forward to get hold of him.

Daniel jerked his bike to the right and hightailed it out the driveway, Jack’s words echoing in his ears. “That’s it! You’re SO going to get it!”

He rode down the street at breakneck speed. Somewhere a car started, but Daniel didn’t wait to see if it was Jack’s truck. He zipped around the corner – there was only a right turn at the end of their street – and frantically wiped at his eyes to get rid of the blur.

He slowed down when he realized he was putting himself in danger with the tears stinging his eyes and fogging his glasses. So he stopped at a junction jerked off his glasses and wiped them on his shirt, then used the hem of his shirt to angrily rub at his eyes.

When he looked up he spotted BD’s jeep coming towards him.

“Damnit,” he murmured, sniffled and jumped on his bike again. He considered taking Jack on a little goose chase across town, but the thought didn’t really appeal to him. He was tired and angry, but also a bit shaken by his own courage – or madness – so he decided to to get rid of Jack as fast as possible instead without taunting him.

He wormed his way out of Jack’s view by taking small walkways and one of the pedestrian areas. If he was going to break the rules he might as well do it all the way.

He circled the city center to make sure he wasn’t being trailed anymore before he took off towards his old neighborhood.

Spring Mall was like a giant rock resting in the afternoon heat. Not even the birds seemed to stir when Daniel squeezed himself through the opening and let the wooden board snap back in place behind him. It was cooler in here, but still warm. He took in the dusty smell of neglect and bird droppings, something he had gotten quite used to during the weeks he had spent time here.

He got his board from the drugstore where they had stored their belongings and provisions, walked up the escalator and found Tara and Ron in the seating area. Ron sat cross legged on the ground, covering his face with a towel, while Tara was spraying blue paint onto his hair.

“What are you doing?” Daniel asked, momentarily distracted from his troubles. He dropped the board to the ground and stepped closer.

“Daniel!” Tara put the bottle down, came over and they high-fived. “Did they let you go?”

“No.” He fell into one of the chairs, suddenly drained and a bit dizzy. “They were going to and then Jack found out I was trying to fiddle with the router to get internet back and all hell broke loose.” He rubbed his nose. “What are you doing?”

“Coloring my hair,” Ron stated the obvious from behind his towel.

“I’m working on our look for the competition,” Tara explained. “I think blue suits us, but I don’t know about this paint, it’s a new brand. Ron volunteered to try it out and see if it is any good and won’t run down our faces when we start sweating.”

She used the bottle one more time, then stepped back. “That’ll do. It has to dry five to ten minutes before we can start.”

Ron threw his towel away and his dark eyes settled on Daniel. “Wow, you look like shit.”

Tara handed Daniel an open bottle of Seven Up and he drank thirstily only to almost gag on the sweet yucky taste. He should have brought one of his water bottles from downstairs.

“What happened?” she asked when he handed her the bottle back.

“Jack snapped. He’s gonna call your dad.” He looked around at their training grounds, their meeting place. “I’m going to miss this place.” After a moment of heavy silence, he added. “And you guys. I don’t think I’m going to be allowed to go anywhere anytime soon.”

Ron, who was still sitting on the ground, angrily kicked the chair closest to him. “I knew it,” he hissed. “You can’t trust anyone over twenty. They all spoil it for you one way or the other.”

Tara pulled her knees up to her body and wrapped her arms around them. “I guess it had to happen someday.”

  



	9. IX

**IX**

Jack had a moment of grim victory when his very skilled son failed to get rid of him on his bike.

_You’re good, Wretch, but I’m better_, he thought as he followed Daniel slowly down the road, his binoculars in his lap. He had grabbed them from the truck – sometimes carrying around this kind of stuff in your glove compartment paid off – before he had jumped into BD’s jeep which had blocked his truck. Having keys to each other’s cars paid off as well.

To his surprise Daniel led him into his old neighborhood. They even passed by his old apartment building. Jack almost lost his cover when the kid stopped at a red light. He quickly pulled into a parking lot. But Daniel felt safe now that he thought he had lost Jack, he didn’t look back.

Jack’s first impulse when he had jumped into Daniel’s jeep had been to go after Little D. to drag him home and read him the riot act.

When it had dawned on him that Daniel might lead him directly to his happy place, he had retreated somewhat and trailed him instead.

The kid steered his bike into the empty parking lot of the closed down mall they used to go to have lunch on weekends. Nice little Chinese place they used to have there. And that Starbucks… their Starbucks. The one where they had done the talking on that fateful day…

_No time for nostalgic dwelling here. Where’s the bratling?_

Jack drove by, thinking he had been made again. He turned the next corner, parked and waited, but no Daniel showed up. Either Daniel had left and turned back the way he had come or…

“A mall? Seriously?” Jack muttered and pocketed his binoculars, put his sunshades on and left the jeep. His phone beeped. He took one look at the screen and turned the sound off.

“Sorry, BD, special ops here,” he murmured as he walked back to the parking lot and peeked around the corner through his binoculars. It didn’t take long to set the perimeter. Two entrances, the big one at the front and a small one to the left. The main entrance had been boarded heavily. Some sorry excuses for graffiti in red, yellow and white had been sprayed all over the boards.

Could have been the Wilmerson kid. Then again, maybe not. This wasn’t art, it was just some sloppy mess. Daniel had shown him pics of what Ron had done for the backdop wall of the skate area at the Rainbow Center. That kid could paint.

The side entrance was boarded as well.

“Where’d you get in?” Jack looked up and saw big smashed windows and concrete walls. There was a balcony on the second level, its iron banister broken and hanging down halfway. He spotted fire escapes on both short sides of the complex. One of them had been broken out off its hinges and was lying on the ground, the other one seemed intact.

He made his way along the large green bushes, staying in the bit of shade they provided, and reached a red ring of cobblestone with former flower beds and benches in front of the mall. The flowers had all turned into dust and the two benches had become <strike>a</strike> victim to the untalented graffiti sprayer.

He saw something blue flash between the green leaves of the bushes and discovered Daniel’s bike and two others. Tara’s purple Santa Cruz bike he recognized. He guessed the other one belonged to Ron or Grey. Based on the small pride flags on the handlebars and the rainbow-colored sprayed saddle his guess was Ron.

It didn’t take long to find the loose board, but as he squeezed through, he regretted the couple of extra pounds he had put on since he’d been riding the desk. He heard low voices coming from upstairs, carried down to him by the reverberation of the large atrium hall.

“Is there any place you can go? The Memorial skate park? G&P Indoor skate park?” Jack heard Daniel ask.

“We can skate at the center just fine,” Ron said, resignation in his voice. “It’s not about having anywhere to skate. It’s about having a place with a certain kick, an aura.”

“It’s about having a private place,” Tara said. “Skate parks are always crowded.”

“I’m so sorry,” Daniel murmured, but the words seemed to echo loud and accusing in Jack’s own ears.

“It’s not your fault,” Tara soothed, her voice soft.

“She’s right. It’s not. It’s not even unexpected. What Tara said before; it was bound to happen. Always does. Your father’s just like the rest of them. They don’t get it. You gotta wonder if they’ve ever been our age.”

“It’s complicated.”

“It’s always complicated with parents. No surprise there either.”

“No, you don’t understand. My… Jack… has this thing about my safety,” Daniel said after a heavy pause in the conversation. “He always needs to know where I am.”

“Control freak,” Tara said. “Military types, I know those. My dad’s gonna be livid about this. Like you I won’t be going anywhere for a while.”

“It’s because they have seen things you… we can’t even imagine, I guess,” Daniel said vaguely.

“Yes, but we’re not in Iraq or Afghanistan here,” Tara pointed out. “We shouldn’t have to suffer because of their PTSD or whatever it’s called.”

“Jack lost his kid,” Daniel blurted out. “Charlie shot himself with Jack’s gun.”

Jack, rooted to the spot in the shadows by the escalators, gritted his teeth only to be taken by surprise at the soft tenderness in the kid’s voice when he continued, “He’s just trying to protect me. We’ve been through a lot together. Stuff I can’t talk about. He’s not used to me being out on my own so much, but he’s not holding me back. He just can’t forgive me for going places he doesn’t know about. Breech of trust. It’s a big deal. And I didn’t… I didn’t see it that way because I didn’t lie to his face. But by not telling him… and then refusing to tell him...”

“His kid shot himself with his gun?” Ron asked. “How creepy is that.”

“We should never have brought you here,” Tara said.

“Why? I love it here. It’s great. And you couldn’t have known any of this. I never told anyone. I never had friends outside my family before, this is… special to me.”

“You have friends in your family?” Ron sounded amused.

“My family are my friends. The best.”

“Wow. I can’t even stand to be in the same room with my folks.”

Jack heard a clatter and Ron’s voice from a shorter distance. “Let’s skate. Might as well enjoy our time together here while we still can.”

The rushing of wheels drowned out any answering voices.

Jack scrubbed a hand through his hair, messing it up at the top. Great. Now he couldn’t even hold on to his anger. He…

Something cold and hard was pressed against his back and a rough voice whispered harshly into his ear. “Put your hands where I can see them, Mister. Slowly.”

“Whoa… easy, buddy.” He raised his hands to shoulder height, but the pressure on his back increased.

“By your sides.”

Jack lowered his hands to his sides and within seconds he was handcuffed and spun around, his back smacking against the escalator wall. “Now what do we have here? Let’s not alarm those kids up there, shall we?” He was grabbed by one elbow and propelled forwards.

His captor was a stout older guy with short cropped gray hair and piercing blue eyes. He was wearing the uniform of a security guard and Jack quickly checked him out. Truncheon on his belt and a Glock currently pointed at Jack. “Let’s take this to my office.”

“You’ve got an office around here?” Jack looked around. “Cozy.”

“Move.”

They crossed the hallway, turned into one of the side wings of the mall and security man pulled out a huge key ring once they had reached a glass door. He opened it and motioned for Jack to go through, then followed into an old stairwell and through another door into a corridor with shabby brown carpet.

“Nice,” Jack drawled. “I love what you’ve done with the place.”

“You’re a funny guy. Let’s see where your humor goes once I’ve called the cops.”

They stopped at the second door to the left and entered a small room with a window looking out to the parking lot. Jack spotted an old desk and chair, a phone and a laptop. He was pushed onto the chair and security guy parked his butt onto the desk. “Who are you? Got any ID with you?”

“Do you?” He looked the other man up and down and was met by a grim smile and a finger pointing at a name tag on the uniform.

“Bob Thornton, security guard.”

“Jack O’Neill, father of one of those kids.” He pointed at the ceiling.

“Father or random guy who likes to stalk kids?” Thornton’s eyes were cold and assessing.

“There’s an ID in my wallet. My wallet is in my car. But you can take a look at my tags. Around my neck.” He raised his hands very slowly to the front of his shirt and at Thornton’s nod he pulled at his tags until they slipped out.

Thornton bent forward. “O'NEILL, JONATHAN 799 36 6412B NEG RC,” he read out loud. “Air Force? Wait… O’Neill? You’re Daniel’s dad?”

“That would be me.”

“I saw him skate. He’s good.”

“He is.” Jack held out his hands. “If you don’t mind...”

Thornton pulled out his key ring again and a second later the handcuffs clicked open. “Sorry for the inconvenience, but I feel kind of responsible for those kids. And I don’t trust people sneaking around in deserted malls.”

Jack pursed his lips. “You come here often?”

“Making rounds twice during the day, three times at night. Most of the time I don’t even alert the kids. It’s their adult free zone.”

“You do realize you’re not supposed to turn a blind eye on this. You’ll get fired if something happens to them here. And most likely sued.”

Thornton gave him a curt nod. “There’s that. But they’re not little kids and if I chase them off they’ll find other places to hang out. Maybe worse places. I guess what I’m trying to say is as long as no one tells on those kids they’re safe here. The other three have been around for almost a year, never had any trouble with them. All they want to do is skate. They even put away their trash.” He cocked his head. “You followed your kid to figure out where he’s hanging out and with whom.”

“Oh, I know his pals. The _where _was the main issue.”

Thornton nodded. “Scary when they start having a life on their own, huh?”

Channeling his kid, Jack muttered, “It’s… complicated.”

“Look, all I can say is that they’re good kids. Bit on the freaky side, sort of misfits all of them, especially Ronald, but reliable kids for all I know. Your kid could have chosen worse company.”

“I know.”

Thornton got up and opened his office door. “Well, I wouldn’t blame you if you took your kid home and called the other parents to put an end to this.”

“Ye-ah.” That was what he had intended to do when he followed Daniel inside. And now he was… reconsidering.

“Or we could exchange phone numbers if it’d make you feel better. In case there’s any trouble I get wind off, I’ll call you. Makes me feel better to have at least one parental contact, too,” Thornton said after a stretch of silence. “Mine are all grown up, but if I learned one thing it’s that the more you restrict them the more they will try to break out and work against you.”

Jack hesitated, then pulled out his phone. He paused. “Why are you doing this? Risking your job and getting sued for a bunch of kids.”

A shadow fell over the other man’s broad face. Somehow he reminded Jack of Hammond. “You probably won’t understand,” he said with a shrug. “But I used to be one of those kids. Total misfit. Not as bright as most kids, not as good looking, bit on the dense side, no money. All I wanted was to skate. And to be left alone. I reckon they’re better off in here than out on the streets being chased away by the cops for skating in areas they’re not supposed to.” He pulled a post it pad from the chest pocket of his uniform and a pen from another pocket.

They scribbled down phone numbers. Jack didn’t trust easily, but he had a gut feeling this guy was legit. And his gut feeling was usually right.

Jack thanked him and walked out through another side entrance Bob opened for him.

On his way back to the jeep, he opened his phone and pushed the number 6 on his speed dial. His call was answered after the third ring. “Yeah, Pete… it’s Jack. Listen… nope, I haven’t heard from Carter, she’s fine. I need you to do me a little favor. Could you check someone out for me? Name’s Thornton, Bob. He’s a security guard, probably former cop...”

* * *

Daniel jumped off his board, kicked it up and caught it with one hand. “I should go.”

He had tried to get lost in the familiar feeling of ease and all the weight falling off his shoulders whenever he was on his skateboard. He loved how everything seemed to become less important, how reality seemed to shift, how everything was just about the next trick, the next move, the board under your feet and the slapping of wheels on hard ground.

Not today.

It wouldn’t come to him.

Tara sighed. “Yeah, me too. Might as well go home and confess to my dad before the general calls. If he hasn’t already.” She looked at Ron who rode a circle around them and stopped, balancing on his board.

“I’ll stay. Your dad is going to call mine, Tink. And my folks are just going to throw me out again anyway. No point in going home in the first place.”

“Can you bunk down at Grey’s again?” Tara asked.

“Guess so. His folks said I’m always welcome.”

“What about you, Daniel? Will you be okay going home?”

Daniel swallowed hard, having Jack’s threat replaying in his head. He knew Jack wasn’t going to take that certain page out of his father’s book. Still, he wasn’t exactly looking forward to facing him right now. “I’ll deal,” he said with a shrug.

Ron waved at them and went back to making his rounds on his board. But even he was much less fast or enthusiastic than usual.

“Actually, I think I’ll stay with him for a while,” Tara changed her mind. “Might be the last time we get to be here. You sure you really wanna go home?”

Daniel was torn between wanting to stay and knowing he shouldn’t. And not wanting to go home just yet. He wished he could talk to someone who wasn’t caught in this mess with him, Jack and BD. His usual choice would have been Teal’c, but his Jaffa friend was on a mission with Bra’tac.

“I won’t be in touch until I get my phone or laptop back and they allow me to go online again,” he reminded them once he had made up his mind. “You should call Grey and let him know there might be trouble.”

“Will do,” Ron called from where he was skating.

“Take care, D. Don’t let them be too hard on you,” Tara said softly and they hugged hard.

Ron came to stop in front of them once again. “You pansies act like it’s the end of the world.” But his voice wasn’t entirely steady.

“You guys at least see each other at school,” Daniel pointed out.

Ron shrugged. Then he hugged Daniel, too, with his lanky arms, almost crushing him in the process.

Daniel picked up his skateboard and trudged down the escalator one last time.

Having friends had been cool. Maybe it was too complicated though. And if having friends meant he was in a constant struggle to maintain the peace at home, maybe it wasn’t worth it. Suddenly all the teenage drama seemed too exhausting and the price too high.

He felt unusually defeated and weary when he fastened his board on his bike’s rag and headed away from Spring Mall.

* * *

BD was pacing.

He had tried to call Jack, or text him, multiple times after he had jumped into Daniel’s jeep and gone after the kid like the devil after the poor soul. Naturally Jack had ignored all his attempts and eventually Daniel had given up.

He had considered calling Sam and making her track LD’s GPS beacon. Jack being after him as mad as he was counted as a life threatening situation, right? Right. Maybe not life threatening, but… close?

_He’s not going to hurt him. _

But he had threatened the kid with corporal punishment.

_He won’t do it._

Still, the two of them were in a place right now where they might say damaging things. Sometimes words were equally as hurtful as physical pain. And both of them had sharp tongues.

Daniel had tried to relax and played frisbee with the dog for a while. Then he had started pacing the deck and the living room. He had sat on the couch and cuddled the dog. Then paced again. Then called Jack again. Then he had coffee and a sandwich, only bites of it actually. He had turned LD’s phone on to call Tara. He was pretty sure the kid had gone to see her – if Jack hadn’t gotten hold of him first. But of course LD’s phone was locked and Daniel didn’t have the nerve to try his luck with the code.

Finally he had taken the dog on a walk around the neighborhood, his own phone tucked away in the back pocket of his jeans.

No one called. And no one had come home when he returned.

“I’m going to kill them both,” he decided.

Flyboy pushed his nose against his leg and let out a soft whimper. The dog hated it when they were cross with each other. Daniel bent down on one knee and hugged him. “I know,” he whispered softly. “I know.”

Suddenly the dog pulled away and dashed out, barking.

Daniel went after him, muttering, “Finally,” under his breath.

He half expected Jack to be dragging a spitting mad LD home with him, but it was too quiet for that. And when his lover walked into the backyard, pulling the sunshades off his nose he was alone.

And apparently in a – if not better – calmer place.

“Did you find him?” Daniel greeted him.

“Yep.”

“Okay. Where is he? You didn’t dump his body in the river, right?”

“I was able to restrain myself.” Jack fondled the dog’s head for a moment before he walked towards Daniel and stopped in front of him, pursing his lips. “I, uh, might not have handled this very well earlier.”

“No, you didn’t”

“Yeah, but it’ll put your mind at ease that I didn’t lay hands on him. I didn’t even yell at him.”

“Good, because I was worried there for a moment. And I think there has been enough yelling for one day,” Daniel pointed out. “And enough verbal blows on both sides.”

Jack walked past him and Daniel followed him into the kitchen, watched him open the fridge, pull out a beer, then pause and put it back again.

“Need something stronger?”

Jack closed the fridge door. “Yesss. But… no. It’s too early for Jack Daniel’s.”

“What happened?”

By the time Jack had filled him in they were on the couch in the living room and Jack ended his report with, “Turns out Pete knows the guy. Says he’s an okay guy. Had to retire after being shot. Back troubles.”

“And you just walked out of there leaving Daniel with Tara and Ron?” Daniel hadn’t expected that. Not after all the arguing, fighting and stubborn silent treatment those two had gone through over the last week.

Certainly not after the way Jack had gone ballistic when LD had walked out on them.

“You were right. I can’t lock him away forever. And if I want him to stay away from that place or those kids I’d have to go down on him so hard it might break a lot more than his stubborn argumentative annoying bratty attitude.”

“And now that you know where he’s spending his time…”

“I’m not happy about that place. It’s big and probably has more potential hazards than I want to know. But Daniel knows how to move around in ruins. At least I won’t have to worry about him touching some alien doohickey that zaps him away or downsizes back to being 7 again.”

“And you couldn’t trust him with that when you didn’t know what kind of place it was.” BD watched Jack’s face go through several stages of emotions from annoyed to thoughtful to resigned.

Finally he said, “One of the biggest issues he and I have been going on and on about over the years is that he still believes I don’t entirely trust him.”

“I can relate. I used to think that. Back in the beginning.” They had left that particular issue behind a very long time ago, but Daniel had known it had resurfaced with the downsizing and all the battles connected to it. The small ones and the big ones. Over the last two or three years though he had had the impression the trust issue had been put to rest indefinitely.

“Which, at times, was true, because for a while there he couldn’t accept his limitations after he got turned into a munchkin. And at other times he’d jeopardized that trust because he had to work against me in order to do what he felt was the right thing.”

Daniel smirked. “Sounds familiar.”

Jack shook his head. “But when it comes down to it he should know that I trust him. After all the crap we’ve been through? That battle against Ba’al and Anubis? Atlantis? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of all the occasions I let him take lead. Any and all of those pesky restrictions he’s always so annoyed about are put in place to have his six, to keep him healthy and grounded.”

“Protection. It all comes down to that.”

Jack’s face hardened. “I know damn well he’s entitled to have a life on his own, that he’s taking huge leaps by branching out and leaving that bubble he has lived in for the last six years. And I’m aware he doesn’t need me every step of the way.”

“No,” Daniel said softly. “Not anymore.” And that was it. The very core of the problem. Not just the fact that LD had had secrets and refused to tell even after he’d been busted. He had known from the start that this ran far deeper than that.

He got up, went into the kitchen, returned with that beer in hand and put it on the table. “You want to… I don’t know... talk about it?”

Jack picked up the beer, took a sip. “No, not really.”

“Jack, this has been eating away at you for far longer than LD has been grounded.”

“What?”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Jealousy? Hurt? The fact that he’s started to break away from you somewhat?”

“I am _not_ jealous.”

“Okay.”

“I’m happy for him. Was… happy for him before all this got out of hand. He stopped being so clingy a long time ago. And I _do_ think that’s a good thing.”

“Yes, but he only started to spend all his free time skating with those guys this spring and it’s very clear you have... issues.”

“Because he’s obsessed...”

“Focused.”

“Daniel...”

“Jack?”

“All right, fine, I thought he was spending too much time with those kids. But I let him go. Every damn weekend. I even let it slide for a while when he started getting sloppy with his chores. I fixed his damn knee, knowing I shouldn’t. Just so he could be at that skate park on his birthday.”

“And he thanked you for it by retreating even more and being home even less. And then having secrets and going behind your back.” Daniel knew he had nailed it.

Jack gave him a dirty look. “Oh yes. And this is only the beginning. It’s going to be a tough couple of years if his puberty is going to be anything like his transition from man to child. And you weren’t even here for the worst of that.” He got up, beer in hand, and walked over to the panorama window, staring out into the backyard. “He doesn’t even feel obligated to get his butt back here now so I can kick it.”

“But when he got downsized it was a backwards transition. Now he’s moving forward, plus, he’s been through this one before.” Daniel frowned. “I remember puberty being… confusing. All the strange feelings. All this mind versus...”

Jack turned around, one eyebrow raised. “...dick?”

“Actually, I was going for…” Daniel shrugged. “Yeah, probably.” He coughed. “Well, look at it this way; he already knows about his orientation, he doesn’t need any education about self care, protection, girls, boys. His biggest challenge right now is to figure out _who_ he is going to be one day.”

“Piece of cake, huh? Maybe you take over from here, see how far you get dealing with him when he gets like today since you seem to have all the answers” Jack snapped.

Daniel got up and met him in the middle of the room. “You know I don’t have all the answers any more than you do. I just think it’s important to get past being mad at him and find a way to work this out.”

“Yeah, well, I thought I was past that. Apparently I’m not there yet.” Jack brushed by him, leaving him standing there, dumbfounded.

* * *

Sam put the chocolate milkshake on the table in front of him and settled back on the couch with a low groan. Daniel had wanted to get it himself, but she had insisted. “I’m pregnant, not sick,” she had laughed and told him to stay seated.

“Thank you,” he said, absently fiddling at the bit of scab left on his elbow from his fall.

“I put vanilla ice cream in. We ran out of Chocolate, sorry.”

“That’s fine.” He picked up the large glass and took a sip. Sweet and cold. “It’s great.” He put it down and sighed. “I don’t know how to fix this, Sam.”

“Once you have all calmed down, I’m sure you’ll find a way out of this. But you should let them know you’re here.”

“Jack took away my phone,” he said gloomily.

Sam smiled at him. “Believe it or not, Daniel, I have a phone, too.”

He grimaced. “I know that. I’m just saying, this is how bad it is. He took away my phone, my key, my laptop, my iPod…”

“Ouch.”

“I can’t even remember the last time it was this bad.”

“And how does that make you feel?”

Daniel chuckled. “You sound like me shrink.”

“It’s a valid question, isn’t it? Do you mind?” She picked up his drink and took a sip when he shook his head. “Ohhh, it’s so good. I shouldn’t, but I have such a craving for ice cream.” She licked her lips. “Sorry. Feelings?”

He drew invisible lines on the wooden tabletop with his finger. The Earth symbol, a squiggle, the Abydos symbol, more squiggles. “Angry. But also guilty. And sad.” He looked down at his hands, “Yes, mostly sad,” he repeated. “It hasn’t felt this bad in a very long time and I’m not sure what to do about it.”

“All you can do is talk to them, clean the air, let it out.”

“I will. I just need a little more time,” he admitted.

Sam nodded. “Okay. I could show you the nursery. It’s finished. Pete hung up the curtains and installed the lamp over the changing table two days ago.” She winced, then reached for his hand. “She’s moving. Do you want to…?”

His first impulse was to flinch away and politely decline. He had no idea why, but it seemed embarrassing to touch her to feel baby movements. Then he mentally kicked himself and let her take his hand to put it on her bulging belly. What he felt underneath his palm was a flutter or a ripple and a slight arch, a small bump emerging underneath his hand. Then it was gone again. And then back again.

“Is that her kicking?” he whispered.

“Yes. She’s not moving as much as she used to anymore though because she’s getting too big.”

“Has she turned into final position yet?”

“Oh yes, that happened weeks ago.”

“Did it hurt?”

“The turn? No. But she’s putting pressure on my pelvis now and that’s why I’m waddling so bad.” She grimaced. “It’s also why I have to pee every five minutes.”

“Uh, TMI,” Daniel grinned and removed his hand to take another sip of his milkshake.

“Sorry,” she laughed. “Being pregnant means you start talking about or googling all kind of weird things you never thought about before.”

Once Daniel had finished his shake they went upstairs and he stood in the sun-drenched nursery, giving appropriate praise to the warm sunny yellow of the walls, the soft green curtains and carpet, pristine white furniture and pastel orange bedding.

He brushed a finger over the baby mobile hanging above the crib and the wooden suns, moons and stars moved in a circle. Sam opened the closet and showed him tiny onsies, bibs, miniscule socks and hats, tot-sized jackets and pants, many of them printed with perky elephants, ducks, owls or teddy bears or polka dots in all colors. She pulled out a onsie that said ‘Daddies lil daredevil’ and another one that had ‘My mommy is a rocket scientist’ printed on it.

At the back wall underneath the window where all those shelves with boxes had been Daniel spotted planets and stars painted in the same soft orange and greens, a whole galaxy with small spaceships in between. “Did you paint that?”

The last time he had been here they had painted these walls, but the additions of the patterns were new.

“Pete and I did it together. Like it?” She sat down in the huge cozy loveseat by the window. “This will be the nursing area. And probably the ‘trying to get her to sleep’ area.”

“It’s beautiful.” He turned on his heels to take it all in again. “She’ll be loved so much.” He didn’t know where that had come from. Of course she was going to be loved to the moon and back. She was Sam’s and Pete’s baby and she would have a whole bunch of uncles and aunt Janet to spoil and cuddle her, to protect her and to help her thrive while growing up.

But right now here in this little room with the sun shining so brightly through the window, the warm colors, the solar system on the wall and the faint scent of vanilla Daniel couldn’t help being a bit overwhelmed. Thoughts of his mom flooded his mind. Had she set up a nursery for him with the same tender nesting instinct Sam had developed? Had she awaited his arrival and thought about all the things her son was going to do, the milestones he would pass and how she would be there with him every step of the way?

He picked up a small fuzzy teddy bear from the crib. “Sam?”

“Daniel?” He hadn’t realized she had gotten up again, but now she was by his side, one hand tentatively resting on his shoulder.

“Try… not to die, okay? When you’re back at the SGC… when you’re going off world again.” He tossed the teddy back into the crib and forced out a grin. “Sorry. I know it’s stupid. Just...”

She shook her head. “I’ll do my best. But I know you’re going to be my village. All of you. Whatever happens in the future, she won’t be alone. She’ll never end up being pushed into the system.” Her warm small hand slipped to the back of his neck, squeezing gently just like Jack sometimes did. “I’m not going off world anymore. At least not for a very long time, Daniel. We’ll be fine.”

“Right.” He could breathe easy again and the moment was gone, but he still opted for going back down to the living room.

Once they had gone downstairs Sam pulled out her phone and handed it to him. “Speaking of being loved… You should call them. They must be worried.”

“Can I tell them I moved in with you and Pete? I’m going to be the world’s best babysitter, you’ll see.” He took the phone and weighed it in his hand.

“Don’t you think this has been going on long enough?”

“Yes. But there’s no real solution. Especially now. I have no idea what to tell them.”

“Text them. That way you can avoid direct confrontation over the phone. That’s better done face to face. Start by saying you’re sorry,” Sam suggested, “and go from there.” She frowned. “I mean, you are, right? Sorry that you ran at least?”

Daniel sighed. “Ye-ah. And I have a feeling I’m going to be a lot more sorry once I get home.”

She gave him a sympathetic smile. “We could have pizza for dinner.”

* * *

Jack’s first choice was to follow his own advice and give LD’s punching bag a bit of a work out. But after a couple of half-hearted smacks he realized he wasn’t really into it. His newly flared up anger had been short lived anyway. It had also been more self-directed than anything else.

After giving the bag one last push he left the gym and decided he needed to move.

“_What are you doing?_”

Jack looked at the leash dangling from his wrist. “I’m going to walk the dog.”

“I already walked the dog. You can’t seriously want to drag him out again in this heat.” Daniel blocked the way to the living room where Flyboy was and it didn’t look like he was going to move anytime soon. He also looked pissed as hell, which always resulted in him looking incredibly hot.

Jack tossed the leash onto the chest of drawers in the hallway. “Fine. I’m going to take a walk without the dog.” He needed to get some air, or to air out his head, or whatever. To quote his kid from earlier today; he needed space. He opened the front door, but Daniel was faster.

He crossed the distance between them in two strides and pushed the door shut with a bang.

Jack turned slowly and found himself almost nose to nose with a set of stormy blue eyes and that dangerously deepening frown line. “I want you to move your ass back into the living room.”

“_Why?_”

“Because we weren’t done.”

“Daniel, if I want to talk to a shrink I’m going to see Doc Murphy.”

“Maybe you should.”

“Yep. Maybe I should.” The words were out before he was able to hold them back. Or maybe he didn’t want to hold them back. He wasn’t sure.

Daniel blinked. Then stepped back. “What?”

“What?”

“You just said...”

“I know what I just said. And he wants to see us anyway.”

“Ye-ah.” Daniel looked puzzled for a moment there. Then he rubbed his temples with his fingertips. “Look… I didn’t mean to corner you, but I want us to at least reach some basic understanding about what to do before LD is back.”

“I’m open for suggestions,” Jack said. Maybe he didn’t have to take that walk after all. But he still felt edgy when he followed Daniel into the kitchen and watched him as he started to make coffee.

“You already took the first step by not dragging him home. Question; are you going to forbid him to go back there?”

“No.” Jack had grudgingly made up his mind about that already. He wasn’t happy, but he was willing to make that leap of trust despite everything that had happened. Because Daniel was right; he had issues with LD’s latest development of breaking away from them. _From him_. And Jack needed to acknowledge – not for the first time – that these were his issues, not Little D’s.

He was honest enough to admit that meeting Bob had helped to make this decision. A lot.

“Are you even going to tell him you know…?”

“No.” He realized he had apparently processed more during his time at Spring Mall and on his way home than he thought he had.

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to give him reason to get back into those trust issues.” Jack took the mug handed to him, but put it down without drinking.

Daniel cocked his head. “Uh-huh. And it has nothing to do with you knowing he might just feel guilty enough about keeping his little secret that he’ll be extra cautious not to add any more guilt to this in the future.”

“Tough.” Jack shrugged and held his partner’s gaze.

”Okay. We are going to tell him if we get the impression it’s weighing him down.”

“Fair enough.” The last thing Jack wanted was Daniel on a serious guilt trip. But he wasn’t beyond using Little D’s bad conscious to his advantage up to a point.

His phone beeped and announced a text message from Carter.

They looked at one another. Uh-oh. “Baby alert?”

Daniel frowned. “What? Now?”

“Babies don’t usually ask if the timing for their arrival is good or bad,” Jack pointed out. They had told her to call if there was an emergency and if Pete was out of town.

Pete was in Boulder.

They looked at the phone.

It was Daniel who picked it up from the table to check. His eyebrows wandered upwards. “It’s from Daniel. He’s at her house. He says he’s sorry for walking out on us and asks if it’s safe to come home yet. And that Sam has invited him to stay for dinner just in case…,” he coughed, “...if it’s okay with us.”

“What? Gimme that.” Jack got up and was around the table in a flash, snatching the phone from Daniel’s hand. “Sam invited me to stay for dinner just in case you need more time to calm down and be reasonable again,” he read aloud. “That snotty little wretch.”

“I’ll tell him to stay for dinner.” Daniel took the phone from Jack. “And then it’s about time you and I work out your kinks so you can be calm and reasonable again.”

Jack was torn between ordering the brat home ASAP and knowing he needed that special kind of work out right now. To get this out of his system.

When Daniel put the phone down and started to strip right there without further ado, Jack followed his lead, very well aware that he was being manipulated into having post-coital pillow talk later.


	10. X

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens... or something... and there's going to be a baby on board :)
> 
> Also, there's a bit of Jack and Daniel are doing it in here - but it's really tame and mostly post coital pillow talk. But you have been warned anyway :)

**X**

_This is so much better than the punching bag,_ was Jack’s first coherent thought when he gazed at the ceiling of the gym. He felt every single spring coil of that old ratty couch down here poking his back and shoulders, but he also soaked up the warmth of the body snugly plastered against his and the tuft of hair tickling his nose.

They could have just gone to their bedroom since LD wasn’t home, but doing it down here had become a habit whenever they knew it was going to be a bit rough and vocal. Soundproofed walls made a lot of difference.

He blew against that tuft of hair, then rubbed his nose against the back of Daniel’s head, causing him to stir and turn on his side, head resting on Jack’s shoulder. He opened sleepy blues. For some reason Daniel’s eyes always seemed much brighter, much bluer after sex. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Jack raised a finger and traced the outline of Daniel’s face.

“Feeling better?”

“Nice work out.” Jack stretched, then winced, and grinned. He ached in all the right places and all the edges had been smoothed out for the moment. Daniel didn’t insist on topping a lot, but when he did Jack was in for a ride that never failed to leave him sated, deliciously drained and at the same time recharged.

He pretty much felt like this at any given time they made love, but when he felt the need to be on the receiving end, it often meant there _were_ kinks to work out. And they always got worked out.

“You do realize we get to do this a lot more often now that the kid is out there so much, right?” Daniel stroked his palm up and down Jack’s chest, then rested it on his solar plexus.

“I noticed that, yes.” Had to look at the bright side here.

Daniel’s thumb was drawing lazy circles around Jack’s navel.

“Spoon with me,” Jack murmured after a while of lazy necking and they moved into their favorite post-coital position. Daniel was the one spooning up behind him today, plastering himself against Jack’s back, arms wrapped tightly around him, one leg hooked over Jack’s. More often the positions were reversed, but this was what they did.

This was reassuring.

This was him. His love. His life and the Daniels were _his_ family.

It was different. _He_ was different.

And as long as Big Daniel was there to anchor him he could deal with the little one.

_But what if you can’t stop yourself one day? What if _ _you _ _lose it. What if the kid _ _pushes _ _you into actually believing you have to whip him into submission. He’s good at that. Pushing. _

“_Jack?” _

“Mmm?”

“I can hear you thinking. That’s usually my job,” Daniel slurred into Jack’s neck. One of his hands started stroking Jack’s chest again.

Jack closed his eyes and placed his own hand over Daniel’s, stilling the movement or just holding on. “For the first two years after he got shrunk, whenever he got really mad at me, he used to tell me he didn’t need me to be his dad. That he was capable of living on his own if he was allowed to and that he was only indulging me in my need to be a father again,” A bitter sweet smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“But you both knew it wasn’t true.”

“Sometimes he’d scream it at me at the top of his lungs and ten minutes later he was curled up in my lap crying his heart out.” Jack entwined his fingers with Daniel’s. “He needed me, Daniel. So badly. And despite the fact that I loathed all the draining fights, and all the depressing sad moments, I needed him just as much.”

“You need to be needed. It’s who you are. You can deny it with your last breath, but there it is.” Daniel murmured behind him.

“He’s patched up so many of the wounds I didn’t even know were still there. With every good thing we did together, building the tree house, going to Egypt, every bedtime ritual, every hug and every smile was like a band aid. He closed the gaps. Because of him I have my parents back, too. He is a terrific pain in the ass – and I’m never going to take that back – but he’s also the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” Jack looked at their joined hands. “Both of you.”

“He still needs you. Like you said, even when he tells you he doesn’t. He’s not going to leave you behind any time soon.”

“Yeah, but this time... for the first time, I thought he was serious when he said he’s not going to live by my rules anymore. And as few rules as there are, he needs them. Or maybe I need them to have a peace of mind when he’s out there on his own. I don’t know any more who needs those rules more, him or me.”

“Both of you do,” Daniel said quietly. “And he knows that. But maybe it’s time to re-evaluate those rules a little bit.”

“Maybe. But he’s never outright fought me on this level – usually by the time we reach the stage of groundings or whatever fits the crime, we are already past the worst. Today he crossed a line and it triggered me so bad, I was this close to losing it.”

There it was. He had been at this point before, several times, years ago, but he had worked so hard to get beyond some of his trigger points and the kid had worked with him on that. They had tried – if not always succeeded – to find common ground or at least a truce before either of them had reached their escalation point.

He’d thought he had a much better grip on himself now. Today, when LD had walked out that door, Jack had been ready to haul him back inside for a licking. And if Daniel hadn’t been there to hold him back...

“I know the two of you are good at bringing each other close to the edge, but you’d never harm him and he knows that, too.”

Jack closed his eyes briefly. He had never been sure if he deserved the kind of trust both Daniels seemed to have in his ability to restrain himself no matter what. He certainly didn’t have that trust in himself.

“What if Little D does push too hard one day,” Jack verbalized his earlier thoughts. He wasn’t 7 or 8. Putting him on a time out chair wasn’t an option anymore. And sending him to his room or down to the gym as a deescalation technique wouldn’t always do the trick either.

“Jack!” He was grabbed by the shoulders and pulled on his back, Daniel’s face only inches away from his. “You. Are. Not. Your. Father.”

“No? Felt pretty close to being him today,” Jack ground out.

“You were mad...”

“Ya think?” Which was exactly the point. He shouldn’t let his kid goad him into getting this kind of mad. “I think we already established that I didn’t handle it very well.”

Daniel sat up and scrubbed a hand through his bed messy hair. “Yes, but you didn’t get physical. And it wasn’t as if I had to wrestle you down to keep you from beating the crap out of him. Besides, your dad didn’t just beat you because he lost his temper, your dad beat you because he thought it was the right thing to do. Because it was common to do it back then. There’s the difference right there.”

“I’m going to see Murphy.” He’d rather eat a bowl of termites and take on an army of Jaffa, but years ago when things had gotten so strained between him and the kid he had started to see Doctor Svenson and it had helped him cope better.

Daniel reached out and cupped his cheek. “You’re not alone in this.”

Jack turned his face, his lips brushing the palm of Daniel’s hand. “I know.”

On the floor by the couch Jack’s phone started playing the Simpson’s theme.

* * *

_I’ve got this. I’ve done this before and I’ve got this._

Little Daniel put the phone down, took a deep breath and turned around. “They’re on their way.” He checked his watch. “Twenty minutes tops.”

Sam gave him the thumb’s up and kept breathing heavily. Her hands cradled her belly. She was on the bathroom floor, propped up against the shower stall. There was already muccus and blood on the towels underneath. She had refused to go into the bedroom to lay down. Had said something about bloody messes and chosen the bathroom instead.

“I’m good,” she said after a moment and visibly relaxed. “For now.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to be on your bed?”

“No, here’s fine. More space to move around.” She winced as another contraction rippled through her body. He could see it in the way her belly cramped and how her hands tightened their grip. “It’s happening so… fast,” she blurted out, something akin to panic in her voice.

“Breathe,” he urged her. “And whatever you do – don’t push.” He checked the items he had laid out by her side. Towels. Bowls with warm water. Washcloth. A baby blanket and hat. Sanitary pads. There was hand sanitizer by the sink as well as clean hand towels.

Sam breathed through the contraction, then closed her eyes. “I can’t believe this is happening now.”

_Me neither,_ Daniel thought bewildered. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

When her water had broken an hour ago Sam had stayed totally cool. Instead of calling 911 or Janet she had attempted to clean up the mess on the living room floor until Daniel had finally been able to convince her to leave that to him. And then she had waddled upstairs to pack her bag, just shrugging off his incredulous, “You don’t have a bag ready yet?”

Daniel had finished mopping up the water when she called his name and he had dropped everything and run upstairs to find her like this in the bathroom. “I think I’m in labor,” she had announced with a forced smile.

They had argued a bit about calling 911, but she had refused and told him to call the midwife instead, telling her contractions were coming every ten minutes.

The midwife happened to be in the middle of another labor, but had promised to try and reach a colleague to come over, but that it might take a while. She had suggested calling 911 but Daniel had called the mountain instead because Sam insisted on Janet coming over. Janet had promised to be there ASAP.

“I’m on my way and I’m calling in an ambulance.” Daniel had put her on speaker so that Sam could listen.

“No no no…” She had gestured for him to give her the phone. “Janet? It’s too late for that. I’m gonna have to do it here. I can _feel _it, she’s on her way.”

“Contractions?”

“Ten… I think even less now… probably eight minutes.”

“Try not to rush it, remember your Lamaze breathing class.”

“Yes. I’m trying.” Then she had hung up.

Daniel had squatted down by her side with a damp washcloth and awkwardly dabbed sweat from her temple. “Do you need me to do anything? When Shau’re was in labor I applied counter pressure to her back...”

“Oh gosh, Daniel… please don’t take this the wrong way, but…” Suddenly her eyes had widened. “Oh my god, we need to call Pete. He wanted to be there so badly when it’s time.”

“I’m on it.” He had called Pete’s phone but only got the mailbox. Then he had called the Boulder police department and left a message.

And then, sensing how uncomfortable she was about giving birth with only him by her side, he had called Jack. There was no time for hurt feelings. If Sam felt more secure with Jack and BD helping her through labor, that’s what she was going to get.

Jack hadn’t asked any unnecessary questions once Daniel had given him a quick status report. Just one. “Are you okay handling this?”

“Yes.”

“Good. We’re on our way.”

And here they were, waiting.

Contractions still every eight minutes.

He knelt down beside her again and continued wiping her temples with the damp cloth.

Maybe it was slowing down? Maybe...

Sam gasped, grabbed his wrist and held onto it. “Oh. My. God.”

“Okay, uh, just stay calm. Breathe. With. Me.” He held eye contact and found his most calming voice. “Breathe in through your nose… and out through your mouth. Start slow and speed up when you have to, but focus on the breathing.” He mimicked her breathing, tried to keep her focused on the task.

“I… I need to move,” she ground out suddenly. “Oh god, Daniel, I’m so sorry...”

“Sam!” He supported her body as she slowly maneuvered herself onto hands and knees. “I have done this before, twice, remember?”

“Yes, I’m trying to… keep that in mind.”

“Good. Relax. Breathe into the contractions… in... out… easy...”

She snorted and he chuckled a little with relief when her body stopped cramping and her breathing returned to normal. “She’s really in a hurry.”

“She wants to meet her mommy. Can’t blame her for that because her mom is pretty amazing.” He hoped his voice was still steady. It sounded steady in his own ears. He knew he would have to look and maybe probe at her cervix at one point to see how far…

_No. No, I can’t do that. No way. No how. I can’t touch her there, not in a million..._

Daniel gritted his teeth.

He wasn’t thirteen. And he would kick the thirteen year old wimpy kid’s ass if he had to. This was Sam and he had done this before even to a strange woman on another planet and to his WIFE. He had delivered his wife’s baby on Abydos and even though Sam wasn’t his wife and the situation was incredibly awkward, her baby was coming and he had to do what he had to do.

_Get over it, _he mentally slapped himself, only to send out a quick little prayer for empty roads allowing Janet to be here soon. Or Jack and BD – anyone who would be able to help.

Sam moaned and her breathing sped up. “Daniel… Daniel I think...” She started rocking back and forth.

“Slow down, slow down.” He knelt behind her, counter pressuring the points on her back.

She paused, panting, her head hanging down between her shoulders. Daniel could see her sweat soaked hair curling at the base of her neck. “I’m good,” she gasped. “For now.”

“Keep breathing. In. Out. You’re doing great.”

“No, Daniel, _you’re_ doing great.”

“This isn’t a competition.” He got up, soaked a towel and gently placed it on her neck before he wet another washcloth and brushed the bangs away from her forehead.

“Thank you,” she whispered and tried a smile.

He didn’t know how much time had passed with Sam going from contraction to contraction and him trying to comfort her as best as he knew how when he heard footfalls on the stairs and a moment later the door was ripped open and BD burst in, Jack on his heels.

Sam had given them a spare key several weeks ago, in case of an emergency just like this with Pete out of town. Janet had one as well.

BD immediately went to wash his hands and used the sanitizer Daniel had put out by the sink. “How’s it going?” He went down on one knee and touched Sam’s face. “Sam?”

“Peachy,” she ground out.

“Hey! Stealing my lines, Carter?” Jack turned the water off, dried his hands and grabbed the sanitizer.

“Daniel and I are doing just fine,” she panted. “He’s amazing… Oh, I will NEVER do this again...” She grabbed a fistful of BD’s shirt. “Where the HELL is Pete? It’s all his damn fault anyway!”

“That’s good, let it all out,” Jack encouraged her. “Sara punched me. If that helps you can do that. Just not in the face.”

She closed her eyes. “Sir… don’t make me fucking laugh, please?” But she laughed anyway and then she screamed and Daniel, who had been at her back again, gently massaging her pressure points, froze for a moment, and then continued what he was doing, his eyes fixed on her spine underneath her damp shirt.

“Can see her head,” BD shouted from somewhere on the floor.

“Where is Janet?” Sam cried out.

“Easy, easy. She’ll be here soon. Stay focused, you’re almost there.” Jack’s hands were on her shoulders, steadying her, being a quiet strength for her to lean on.

“Soon isn’t soon enough,” she hissed, then arched her back and let out a string of curses Daniel had never ever heard come out of her mouth before. And he couldn’t help but giggle a little.

The doorbell rang.

“JANET,” Sam yelled.

“Janet has a key. Might be the midwife,” Daniel said.

“Just… anyone...” she ground out between gritted teeth.

With a little jerk of his head Jack motioned for Daniel to go so he clambered out from his spot behind Sam, dashed out the door and down the stairs, ripped the door open and murmured a, “Thank God, it’s you.”

“Where is she?” Janet closed the door with the heel of her shoe. “I’m sorry, I must have grabbed the wrong key ring when I left home this morning. Sam’s key is on the other one.”

“Bathroom. Jack and BD are with her.”

“How far along is she?” She dropped her purse and adjusted the shoulder strap of the bag she carried over her shoulder.

“BD said he saw the head.”

Janet patted his face. “Go get something sweet to drink and sit down. I’ll take over from here.” And with that she hurried up the stairs and Daniel let out a huge breath of relief.

He went into the kitchen to wash his hands and splash water onto his hot face. He grabbed a tea towel to dry off and then went into the living room to pick up the mop he had dropped there earlier. He put it back into the small storage room in the hallway and then he didn’t know what to do with himself.

He heard the faint mumbling of voices, the clapping of a door and then someone coming down the stairs.

Daniel went into the kitchen and opened the back door, stepped out onto the deck and, suddenly feeling a bit wobbly in his legs, slumped down on the Hollywood swing.

He had just almost delivered another baby. Sam’s baby.

_Today. Sam is going to have her baby today,_ he thought in wonder and slowly looked up when a glass of Coke appeared in front of him. “They kicked me out. Said I’m in the way.”

“How is she?”

“Hanging in there. It seems to stall there for a bit now.” Jack looked at the glass he was still holding. “Here. The doc wants you to drink this. You look a little pale.”

The automatic response _I’m fine_ was at the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it down. He felt a little dehydrated, a bit punch drunk and at the same time drained. It had been an odd kind of day so far. He searched Jack’s eyes and couldn’t see any of the anger from this morning or the underlying irritation from the last week.

Jack didn’t exactly smile, but he said, “You did good there, Daniel.”

Mumbling a, “Thanks,” he took the cool glass offered to him and realized how thirsty he was once he had taken the first sip. He drank with large gulps and then tried to swallow a burp without success. “Sorry.”

“That’s a start.” Jack settled down at the other end of the swing.

Daniel winced and looked at his feet. “I _am_ sorry,” he repeated, in the right context.

“Daniel? Eye contact.”

He sighed and raised his head, turned around in his corner of the swing so that they were facing each other. “I’m not sorry for keeping my promise to my friends,” he began slowly. “But I’m sorry for some of the things I’ve said and for the attitude. And for trying to tinker with the wifi. And, um, for walking out on you today. Most of all I’m sorry for going behind your back even though you have to believe me when I say that wasn’t my intention.” His next words were probably the hardest he had said in a long while and it took him a moment to force them out because it made the decision he had come to so final. “I’m going to accept any form of discipline you see fit. And I’m not going to see Tara and the guys again. I don’t want to get them in trouble, but I don’t want you to constantly be on the edge about where I am either. And I can’t...” He bit his bottom lip hard. Why was this so difficult? “I can’t promise to never go places again you won’t know about if I keep seeing them. But I also can’t stand the thought of us continuing to live in a war zone. I don’t want that. All I ask for is that you don’t call Tara’s dad and leave them be.”

Jack blew out a breath and shook his head. “Whoa, Daniel, that’s quite a load...”

A loud bang as the front door burst open and hit the wall had them both sitting up straight. They heard Pete call Sam’s name and a moment later BD’s voice from upstairs, shouting at him to, “Hurry, your daughter is almost here!”

They waited in silence until Pete’s heavy boots had made it up the stairs and a door was opened and closed.

“So, we can agree that you still do need parenting. Up to a point,” Jack said finally.

“I’d love to disagree with you on that one, but no. I mean yes. I do agree. Up to a point.” He felt compelled to elaborate on this. “It’s becoming harder again to accept that. But I… I wouldn’t say this to anyone else... I don’t want to end up being the way I was at the beginning of this. So I guess what I’m trying to say is, I need your help with that.” He grimaced. “Today was pretty bad, huh?”

Jack cleared his throat. “For what it’s worth, I owe you an apology for losing it like I did when you walked. You crossed a line there, but I so did I.”

“I crossed first,” Daniel said sheepishly.

“There’s that. Still, I’m not proud of how I handled this.”

“I can’t really blame you. This puberty thing can be a bitch sometimes.” Daniel was too relieved about the fact they were talking to each other to give a damn about whether or not Jack would have gone through with his threat if BD hadn’t been there. All he wanted now was to make up and leave this mess behind.

“Ye-ah,” Jack drawled. “I guess it’s going to raise its ugly head regardless of whether you hang out with Tara and the guys or not.”

“I know. But...”

“And not seeing them anymore is probably going to leave you sad and unhappy. Which, in the long run, will lead to you being sullen and depressed.” Jack scowled and shook his head. “Nope, not an option.”

Daniel slowly put the glass of Coke he had still been holding down on the ground. “What… are you saying?”

“I’m saying I’d rather take happy-you with a side dish of bratty and annoying than depressed-and-sullen-you.”

“I’m still not going to break my promise.”

“I know.”

“And that’s… okay with you? You’re not going to interrogate me anymore? You’re just… good with that?” Daniel tried not to ramble or hold his breath or pinch himself

“Maybe it’s time to shift some boundaries. On both sides.”

“Yes, maybe.” He was still trying to wrap his head around all this.

“Make no mistake, Daniel, I’m not letting you off the hook just yet. You’re still grounded until after labor day and if you want to at least _watch_ that competition I expect you to make an effort to keep the sulking to a minimum. No holing up in your room.”

Daniel was tired of sulking and holing up in his room anyway. He felt his lips twitch into a smile and saw Jack’s eyes soften. “Yes, sir.”

And then BD was suddenly there, his face flushed and sweaty, hair messed up, splotches of blood on his t-shirt, but grinning from ear to ear. “It’s a girl!”

“We knew that already, Daniel,” Jack said mildly.

“Yes, but she’s here now! And she’s perfect!”

Daniel hopped to his feet. “Can we see her? How is Sam, is she all right?”

“Mother and baby are fine. Baby is already nursing and Pete didn’t faint when he cut the cord. Sam is proud and Janet is very pleased.” BD gratefully accepted what was left of Jack’s drink and downed it in one large gulp, then continued, “She wants to move Sam and the baby to the hospital for a proper examination later today, but according to her everything seems fine.”

“YES!” Daniel raised his fist and Jack bumped it, but before he knew it, Jack’s arm wrapped tightly around his neck. He was pulled in and got his head knuckled, hard..“OW! Hey! I said I was sorry!” He laughed and tried to get away.

“You didn’t seriously expect to get off that easily, eh?” Jack stopped knuckling and started ruffling Daniel’s hair instead.

“Jaaaack…. Daniel, DO something!”

BD leaned against the Hollywood swing and crossed his arms. “So, you two made up, huh? It’s about time.”

Daniel couldn’t stop the burst of giggles, but he had been well trained. He smacked his elbow into Jack’s ribs and as soon as the grip around his neck loosened, he twisted out of it. Jack held up his hands in surrender, smirking. “Don’t give me a bloody nose, Wretch!”

“Didn’t we agree you wouldn’t call me that anymore?” Daniel rubbed both hands through his tousled hair, trying to straighten it.

“What, Wretch? I think you rightfully re-acquired that nickname, buddy.” Jack clapped his shoulder. “C’mon, let’s see if the baby has all its toes and fingers.”

* * *

They were all snuggled up in Sam’s bed. Sam, Pete and the tiny new human she had just brought into this world. Sam was wrapped in Pete’s arms and the baby was wrapped in a blanket in Sam’s arm, taking a nap after her speedy start into life. A miniscule fist, a tuft of dark blond hair, a button nose and dark lashes resting against a rosy cheek was all Big Daniel could see of her now.

Only minutes ago she had been bloody and smeary and yet she had already been perfect and beautiful then.

Now she had been fed and cleaned and seemed content right where she was.

Daniel acknowledged and allowed the faint echo of grief for the loss of his wife and how devastating it had been to deliver her child which hadn’t been his. Then his eyes caught Jack and LD beside him; his family. Dysfunctional as they were he wouldn’t want them any other way.

“I see all the jell-o you gobbled down didn’t turn her into jelly,” Jack said with an unusually bright smile.

LD just gazed at them in wonder and Daniel thought he looked incredibly young again all of a sudden.

Sam shifted her small bundle and blinked at them. Her blue eyes were tired, but there was also an intense light of happiness and fulfilment all over her face. “Sir, Daniel… meet Catherine Danielle Shanahan.”

“22 inch, 7 pounds,” Janet announced.

“Danielle?” LD asked, eyes popping.

“We couldn’t name her Daniel, so it’s the next best thing,” Pete said with a grin.

“Yeah, just so you know, she’s named her after you, not me,” BD clarified.

“I named her after both of you,” Sam corrected him. “Because both of you helped me through labor. But you,” She turned her smile on a wildly blushing LD, “you were here standing guard until backup arrived. And yes, I know you have done this before, but I also know it had to be tough. For that teenage part in you at least. Thank you.”

“Hey, we are your village, remember?” LD gave her a lopsided grin.

“What am I? Chopped liver?” Jack muttered. He walked around the bed and bent over the sleeping baby, whispering. “Hey there, Cathy, these guys are all nice and dandy, but you and I are going to have all the real fun.”

Cathy smacked her lips and when Jack’s pinky touched the back of her hand she quickly opened it and then closed her tiny fist around his finger.

“There’s still time to name her Catherine Danielle Jackie Janet...” Janet suggested as she reached out to take Sam’s wrist and measure her pulse. “Looks all good. All right, General, Daniels… time to let the new parents rest and get to know their daughter better.”

With that they were dismissed, but not before they had promised to stop by the next day to prepare food. Jack had pointed out that LD had a lot of time on his hands to cook and deep freeze as many meals as needed to give Sam and Pete time to focus on their baby.

Little Daniel had nodded readily and said he would clean, too, even change diapers if absolutely necessary.

_We are the village_, he had said earlier and Daniel thought that was the absolute truth. They were each others village. To raise the kids, to be the back up, to just be there whenever and for whatever they were needed. SG-1 might not be officially a unit anymore. And yet they would always be the number one team.

“We need to call T,” Jack said once he had loaded LD’s bike into his truck. “Last time we chatted he said something about a three day feast to honor a new mother and to welcome sons into this world. I’d say screw the ‘son’ part and have a party as soon as Carter and Pete are up to it.”

Daniel fastened his seat belt and rolled his eyes. “Don’t you think it’s about time you stopped calling her Carter?”

“Who? Carter?” Jack steered the truck into the road.

“I think he likes her to call him ‘sir’,” LD piped up from the backseat. “If he starts calling her Sam he’d have to tell her to call him Jack.”

“Kinky,” Daniel muttered under his breath and smirked.

“Brats,” Jack growled and then rolled his eyes back at Daniel. “We tried the Sam and Jack thing a while back, didn’t work. We’re so used to Carter and Sir.” He shrugged. “Anything else is just awkward.”

“You’d probably still call her Carter even if she had changed her name to Shanhan,” LD mused.

“Probably.”

“I get it. I mean just imagine if I started calling you _dad_ – in a non-sarcastic way.”

“I’d make Fraiser do an MRI of your head to make sure it’s really you and not some clone.”

But Daniel saw the twitch of Jack’s mouth and they had brief eye contact before Jack focused on the traffic again. They didn’t know if LD even recalled the numerous times ‘dad’ had slipped his lips. Way back when he had been ill with the Ancient plaque in Antarctica. Or when his mind had started to regress under the onslaught of the Ancient knowledge on Ba’al’s ship. And when he had smoked weed last summer.

“Then again if your clone turned out to be a good kid with less attitude I probably wouldn’t mind the ‘dad’ thing and keep him instead,” Jack added thoughtfully.

“You’d be bored.”

“Relaxed.”

“Unchallenged.”

“At peace.”

BD leaned back in his seat and let the ongoing affectionate squabbling wash over him.

“You’re not even going off world anymore. You’d miss the thrill of all the bickering.”

“I can bicker with Big-you?”

“He’s way too grown up. Where’s the fun in that? He doesn’t even do plant boy dances anymore.”

Daniel felt it was time to step in here. “Hey! I was under the influence of an injured plant.”

“And I’m under the influence of whatever shrunk me. None of this is my fault. I’m going to blame everything I have done and everything I am going to do in the future on some ‘aliens made me do it’ clause,” LD pointed out. “Unless it’s brilliant and will save the world. Then it’s all me.”

There was a pause and then Jack burst out into laughter.

It was good to be back to normal.


	11. XI

**XI**

“Daniel!” Tara almost pushed Ron out of the way as she started towards him. Her blue hair, styled into submission by tons of hairspray, towered on top of her head. It had behaved all through their performance during the competition, but now it was starting to go lopsided and several strands had slipped the ‘tower’ already. She had her board wedged under one arm and carried the trophy in her other hand.

“Hello, Marge,” Daniel sniggered.

“Hi, Homer.” She dropped her board and hugged him, placing a kiss on his cheek. She smelled of deo, something fruity and sweet, and her whole body radiated heat. “It’s so cool you came!”

“Are you kidding? I had to see this! You guys were the greatest!”

“You could’ve given us a warning though, dude. Tink almost screwed up when she saw you in the audience.” Ron high-fived him. His own hair was only blue on the top of his head. Both of them were dressed in tight black leggings and flowing navy blue tunics covered in silver star patterns with just a hint of glitter.

“Hey, we won! What do you want?” Tara scoffed and showed him their trophy, a golden skateboard on a stand with “2008 Rainbow Center Skateboard Competition, 1st Place” engraved on it.

“Sorry, I got no wi-fi and without my phone I couldn’t even call you.” Jack hadn’t been kidding when he said Daniel would still be grounded until after labor day. He had spent the last two weeks cut off from the outside world except for when he’d been at the mountain. He could have sent them e-mails from his office, but had decided to play it by the book, considering that he had gotten off fairly easy.

He had spent a lot of time over at Sam’s and Pete’s house doing chores for them and tending to little Catherine. He had diapered her, carried her around, held her until she slept. Jack had pointed out Daniel’s great talent for talking people to sleep so it wasn’t any wonder the baby loved to be soothed by him. Jack could make fun of him all he wanted. Daniel just knew the baby loved listening to him whenever she got fussy.

“Still imprisoned?” Ron clucked his tongue. “But you’re here. And I take it you didn’t run away this time.” He nodded at BD who was standing a couple of feet away talking to Gina, one of the Center’s volunteer workers.

“I’m going to be released and fully rehabilitated tomorrow. This is my good conduct treat.”

Tink grabbed his hand and pulled him a little further away from BD and Gina. “General O’Neill never called my dad that night. And apparently he didn’t tell on us at all,” she whispered. “I’ve been on edge all this time, waiting for it. I was so close to just telling him about Spring Mall. But then I kinda couldn’t.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I wanted to tell you, but apparently he wanted to let you suffer just a little bit. I guess he hoped you’d break down and tell your dad eventually. But he’s not gonna tell him. And I’m officially allowed to go wherever I want as long as I mind the curfew and don’t get into any kind of trouble.”

It had been the one thing he had insisted on during their negotiations of loosening the boundaries this week. He hadn’t exactly been restricted from going anywhere before, but it had always been connected to telling Jack where, when and with whom. And to check in several times via text message during the day. Daniel had managed to get rid of the regular timely check ins and the strict protocol of always reporting the ‘where’. He had also managed to have his curfew extended by an hour during the week on evenings he wasn’t required to cook.

It was a pretty good outcome considering that Jack had driven a hard bargain. BD had been their mediator, putting both of them in their places a couple of times. Yet, they had managed to get through it without yelling and both with their dignity intact. Daniel had won more freedom and Jack had insisted on his continued right to revoke that new gained freedom for periods of time if necessary.

BD had given them a written transcript of all the valid points and they all had signed.

“No strings?” Ron asked, his neatly plucked and black dragged eyebrows raising.

“None.”

“Suspicious.”

“I think Daniel had a talk with Jack. He can be very persuasive. But he’s not telling me anything, just said I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. And he’s probably right.”

“Did you bring your board?” Tara asked.

“No, I’ll get it back tomorrow.” Daniel replied with a longing look at the skate areas which were deserted now. Most people, including the two other teams who had competed were probably raiding the food booths now or looking at the booths selling handmade pride art jewelry and other trinkets.

The Rainbow Center annual summer party seemed to attract more and more visitors each year. The grounds were packed with people of all ages. The lines at the kiddie make up booth and the paint-on-tattoos were incredibly long and on a small stage in the middle of the lawn with the picnic table the Rainbow Band – the result of a music workshop – had an enthusiastic audience.

Tara linked arm with him. “Then let’s celebrate! Our victory and your upcoming freedom!”

“They have a mean blueberry mint ice tea,” Ron snorted. “And pink lemonade.”

“Doctor J!” Tara shouted over to BD. “Do you want some ice tea?”

BD exchanged smiles with Gina and came over. “Celebrating in style? Sure, why not.” He pulled his wallet from his jeans pocket. “This is on me, guys. You were amazing.”

Tara winked at Daniel. “’s what I was hoping for, ‘cause I got no cash.”

When they had finally reached the end of the line and gotten their drinks they clinked glasses and Daniel had to admit the ice tea was delicious. Cold, fizzy, fruity and a bit minty. They talked about the competition, where Ron had thought Tara would fluke and how hard it had been for them to continue the training after Daniel had left. The whole choreo had been based on three skaters and Ron had been sure it just wasn’t going to work out with just two of them. But of course it had and they had won and while Daniel felt a small sting of disappointment because he hadn’t been part of it, it was a very small price to pay for not having to give up Spring Mall or skating.

For not having to give up his new friends.

* * *

Three days later Big Daniel closed the door to Jack’s office and slouched down in one of the visitor chairs. Jack signed some report and tossed it on the pile to his left, then folded his hands and gave Daniel a look that ranged somewhere between thoughtful and a scowl. “I heard back from the IOA.”

“I figured as much when you called and told me to make sure the kid is occupied and won’t barge in here.”

“Is he? Occupied?”

“Yep. Deeply engrossed in some translation. Writings on a device Doctor Lee is...”

“Device? Doctor Lee?” Jack groused.

“It’s just a reading device and they are trying to figure out how to turn ‘pages’.” At least that’s what Daniel hoped it really was. He pushed his worries aside and gave Jack a reassuring grin and a prompting look. “So! They called aaaand…?”

“Well, at least he’s not working with Felger,” Jack muttered, picked up his pen and played with it. “Woolsey said they looked at your overview, list of material, the staff you requested and they are still calculating the costs, but he wants to meet up to clarify some of the details before they’ll even consider giving it green light.”

“Meaning I’m getting a hearing.”

“Yep. You’re going to DC to sell it to them next week.”

“Lucky me.”

“Give it your best shot.”

“Jack, this has to be the largest Ancient city we have discovered since finding Atlantis. How can they not want us to set up a long term lab and start excavating?” He got up and started pacing. “It’s HUGE. And from what SG-2 reported and just from looking at the footage of the UAV, many of the ruins are incredibly preserved! I know the IOA wants to see results to optimize our defense mechanism, but who knows what we are going to find?”

Jack smiled briefly. “You don’t have to convince me, Daniel.”

“Right. Wanna come along? Back me up?”

“Sorry, no can do. I’m busy.”

“Busy as in….?”

“Busy as in… being busy.” Jack dropped the pen. “The point is Woolsey and I don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things, so me backing you up might actually have the opposite effect. But I know he likes you. He’s always been fond of you.”

“He does.” Daniel wasn’t buying it.

“Well, he never complains about you. And he complains about a lot of things and people.”

“What about Daniel?” Daniel asked, moving on.

Jack pursed his lips. “If they greenlight the project, they will consider letting him go to assist you partly.”

“Daniel is the only one apart from me and two other linguists on this base who reads, writes and speaks Ancient fluently. I need him there.”

“I told them as much. They are only willing to allow him to go part time. Actually their first response was that he can translate from here if can get all the footage he needs.”

Daniel stopped pacing and gently massaged his temples with his fingertips. Why was it that every time the IOA got involved he developed a headache? Lowering his hands, he turned to face Jack. “Okay. Tell me you’re still with me here?”

They had first talked about this when they had gone to the lake, back in August. How behind most behavioral issues was an unmet need and that Little Daniel’s obsession with skateboarding might at least partly be a compensation for not being challenged enough at the mountain. SG-2’s find of a new Ancient city just seemed to be the right thing to shift LD’s focus at least partly back to other things

To get the balance back.

“About Daniel needing a bit of a challenge and motivation? Yes. Do I feel he’s grown back into himself enough to re-join a team and go off world regularly – not yet. But I’m willing to give it a try for this mission and see how he does. And then we can play it by ear from there. So, yep, I’m still with you.”

“It would be the perfect opportunity for him to do what he loves. Being out in the field. Excavating, exploring. And a way to prove that he could join a regular team again, maybe in a year or two.”

“Two. Or three.”

“Mother hen.”

“Why is it always _mother_...”

“Papa bear?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “So. You, IOA, next week. Be the kid’s voice. I know you can do it.”

Daniel sighed.

“You’re his best advocate.”

“But you’re his father. And his superior. Shouldn’t that be enough to convince them?”

“If it was up to just me he has a go. The IOA thinks he’s too much of a risk to allow him to go off world again. Woolsey thinks I’m biased. Which is a bit ironic given the fact that I was the one who convinced Hammond to ground him from gate travel in the first place.”

When LD had been banned from gate travel – with a couple of special exceptions – it had gone all the way up to the NID and the Joint Chiefs. At first it had been about the kid’s inability to follow orders and the resulting fallout from that, but later he had been declared a security risk because of the Ancient knowledge Oma had put into his head after his encounter with Reese. LD’s grounding status ‘until further notice’ had been changed to ‘permanent’ until he had reached legal age again and the command decision to lift that grounding now wasn’t solely on Jack’s part.

“And I’m not biased?” Daniel snorted.

“Sure, but you have much better leverage because you can tell them exactly why you need him there. Words, Daniel, you have them in spades.”

“It’s probably good we haven’t given him any details about this yet, huh?” Daniel sighed and slumped back into his chair.

“And we’re not going to until he has a definite go.”

The door was ripped open and Little D dashed in, coming to an abrupt halt in the middle of the room. “Daniel! You need to see this! C’mon!”

“What? What’s up?” He was out of his chair, exchanging an alarmed look with Jack.

“It’s not a reading device, well it is, but not exclusively!”

Jack’s hand edged towards the phone. “Do I have to initiate a lockdown?”

“It’s a video cam… well, not exactly, but it has actual movie footage recorded. And it looks like something out of Harry Potter – it’s a holographic video camera. Or maybe not the camera, but the player, we’re not sure yet. You gotta see this, it’s like watching a movie from hundreds of years ago. It has Mayan related sacrifice rituals on it!”

“Whoa, sacrifices, cool,” Daniel snorted.

Jack let out a huff. “So, no lockdown?”

LD rolled his eyes. “No lockdown, relax!” Then he grabbed Daniel by the arm. “Come ON! You’ll get a total kick out of this!”

Of that Daniel had no doubt.

“Keep me posted! If It has porn or gory stuff, I want to see it, too!” they heard Jack shout after them.

The kid groaned. “God, I hope he never says something like that in front of my friends.”

Daniel didn’t even try to suppress the grin. “What? I like porn, too,” he said as they entered the elevator.

“Oh puh-lease,” LD muttered, then frowned and slapped both hands over his face. “Oh, God, listen to me! Jack was right when he said I’m the cliché of a teenager.”

Yep, there was no way to deny it anymore.

Daniel had a feeling they were in for some interesting times.

But he was confident.

Fin


End file.
